2024 is a day of remarkable bravery exceptional teamwork and profound loss for Burnsville on this day police officers Paul elstran and Matthew rugi and firefighter paramedic Adam fth made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our community and saved the lives of seven children that morning thank you for being here to honor and remember them with us their bravery service and the legacies they leave behind will not be forgotten these men responded together laid down their lives for one another and died doing what they were called to do mayor Couts and the city council will now say a few words followed by fire chief BJ junman and police chief Tanya Schwarz May counts thank you city manager Lindberg welcome everyone we are honored that you are here with us today as We Gather today to commemorate the anniversary of the heartbreaking loss of our cherished public safety personnel Paul elmran Matthew rugi and Adam fth we find ourselves enveloped in a profound sense of grief and Remembrance each Soul taken from US represents not just a life lost but a light extinguished a beacon of Courage dedication and selflessness in the face of danger these individuals stood tall embodying the spirit of service and the commitment to protect and serve our community they answered the call of duty to rescue seven children with unwavering resolve placing their own lives on the line for the safety of others today we honor their memory and the sacrifice they made in the name of Public Safety from a spiritual perspective we are reminded that love transcends the boundaries of life and death the essence of those we have lost continues to resonate within our hearts and within our community they served Paul Matthew and Adam's Legacy lives on in the stories we share the lives they touched and the values they upheld together we can keep their Spirit Alive by fostering a culture of compassion unity and resilience as we reflect on this somber day let us not only mourn the loss of Adam Paul and Matthew but also celebrate their lives that were devoted to the noble cause of safeguarding others may we draw strength from the memories of their bravery allowing it to inspire us to create a safer more compassionate World in moments of Sorrow we often find the seeds of Hope let us Channel our grief into gratitude for the time we had with these remarkable individuals and let us our let our commitment to honoring their memory by embodying the qualities they represented courage integrity and love for our fellow human beings in remembrance in reverence and in love We Stand Together Forever grateful for the sacrifice made by Paul Matthew and Adam finally I pray dear go dear God grant us the strength to heal the courage to fight for what matters and the wisdom to cherish those we love in the present moment may love guide our steps even though loss uncertainty and change amen and now council member Dan Keeley thank you Mater Couts for those very meaningful remarks and thank you to everyone joining us here today in the council chambers to honor Heroes to remember our heroes and continue our path of healing nothing could have prepared us for what happened a year ago but we can put things in place to help us all continue to move forward together we've all got a special place in our heart for our First Responders like many young kids growing up my story began as a kid wanting to be a police officer my whole life watching one adam2 draget and all the other shows it was great when I first ran for counil one of my Bedrock principles was the need to continue with a strong capable and professional police and fire department Burnsville was already known for when I ran for office it's been my steadfast belief that good durable and resilient communities are built upon a strong sense of Public Safety when we all can feel safe and secure we can then focus on all the other things that make a community great we have that in Burnsville thanks to those Heroes who serve our Public Safety teams every single day and especially those Heroes who paid the ultimate price for the safety of others I am proud of our Chiefs standing here today with us for their work their leadership and their tireless dedication to our community they wear their badges proudly and I am thankful as everyone is for their efforts today as we continue to heal from the profound and tragic loss of those who served officer Matthew rugi officer Paul amstrad and firefighter paramedic Adam fth we once again recognize their ultimate sacrifice in Saving seven children's lives we will continue to honor their profound courage selflessness and dedication to our community this city Council will never forget them what they stood for and the people they were thank you again for being here to honor our fallen fallen heroes and our police and fire teams many of you in the public have asked what can you do to help our teams heal to that end we appreciate greatly the support from the Minnesota Fraternal Order of Police foundation and the Burnsville police and fire foundation and raising funds and providing resources for families and staff if you wish to contribute and support our teams in their healing please consider donating there are posters with information here in city hall with information on how you can donate once again thank you very much for coming together for everyone in our community I now would like to introduce my fellow council member Vince Workman who has some comments to make himself thank you very much thank you council member key thank you all for being here today as my colleagues have stated today is a somber day as we remember the senseless loss of life of Adam Matt and Paul all three of these young men gave their lives doing what they loved while protecting our community from Evil I wanted to share a quick story about something I observed on February 18th 2024 last year as many of you may recall we held a press conference at 2 p.m. on this day to discuss what had just taken place as we were making our way to the council chambers from the basement I had crossed paths with a friend and a sergeant on our Police Department as I approached the sergeant I could see the red in his face the fatigue in his eyes and the overwhelming sadness in his shoulders and body he was in charge of our Emergency Management operations and still is to this day my guess is that he had been at City Hall most of the morning and into the afternoon and was running on fumes as I walked past him I gave him a pat on the back and received a nod in return I would find out a few weeks later that one of our fallen officers was not just a fellow officer but a personal close friend who our Sergeant spent time with outside of work this moment struck me because it made me wonder how many of us could show up to work after losing a close friend especially on the worst day of our careers Adam Matt and Paul were personal friends to many people in our police and fire departments and many of those people put in a full shift on this day last year I wanted to tell this story because it reflects the kind of people that work for Burnsville police in fire we have the most impressive group of men and women to wear a badge in this state and there isn't a day that goes by where I'm not Beyond proud of the work that they do for our community our police and fire departments show up every single day even on The Darkest Day in our community's history they show up because they are passionate about serving others and taking care of us I wanted to take this time to send a sincere thank you to every person in our police and fire departments for everything you have done yesterday today and tomorrow thank you and now Chief jungman will have a few words thank you council member Workman for your introduction and thank you everyone for being here today covering this important story it's been a long year for many in this community it's been a long year for the Fallen families of our three Heroes it's been a long year for our police and fire department members for our city staff and for our community we are here today to look back to reflect to remember to grieve and importantly to continue to heal this journey affected all of us and we are in this journey together we sincerely appreciate everyone's Support over the past year so many people offered us support then and continue to offer us support now from City staff the community our Public Safety partners and those well beyond our community it is amazing all the people who came forward to support us in our darkest days we experienced an unthinkable tragedy that took the lives of three of our brothers in public safety wounded another and has changed the lives of many well I wish we could turn back the clock and change the outcome we are saddled with the weight of continuing to remember the sacrifice our three Fallen brothers made while continuing to serve the community we have committed to never forget them and to never stop supporting our fallen heroes families none of us will forget and we will always support each other as we have a shared tragic experience after a year a year after this tragedy the common question is how are you in your department doing it's a really hard question to answer the reality is I'm still at a loss to try to comprehend this Unthinkable tragedy the truth is I may not ever fully understand it I do know this for certain though we will continue to work to heal together and support each other each of us is on our own Journey but we are not on this journey alone what is amazing to me is that we work through our grief each and every day our staff continues to serve the community with professionalism and compassion we know our fallen brothers would want us to continue to provide the highest level of protection and care to this community our hero live on in the service to the community our teams provide every day I see the best of our fallen heroes come out every day in the way that our teams serve this community we continue to hold the families of our fallen in our thoughts our prayers and our support their lives have been changed forever due to the selfless sacrifice their loved ones made all three of our heroes Adam Matt and Paul gave their lives saving seven kids we cannot and will not ever forget the sacrifice they made to keep this community safe so thank you for being here today thank you for walking together on this journey with us we appreciate the out pouring a support the love the care and compassion that has been shown over the past year is overwhelming and greatly appreciated thank you and now I'm honored to turn it over to my Public Safety partner police chief Tanya Schwarz thank you Chief it's I'm just so grateful for chief jungman uh being by my side through all of this uh thank thank you all for being here today today is obviously a really emotional day and it's difficult for all of us especially our police and fire departments we miss our fallen Partners Matt Paul and Adam we miss them a lot the oneye anniversary of their ultimate sacrifice brings us back to the shock of that morning and the days following and while we navigate a range of emotions today and every day we find peace in honoring our fallen their families and all of our teams who displayed extraordinary Courage the morning of February 18th 2024 last year Chief jungman and I we spoke to all of you about how we would be trying to heal our broken hearts and how we hoped everyone impacted by this tragic loss would heal too and we hope that you are and we want our community to know that while today is extremely emotional we are healing we are finding hope in the future sometimes our emotions are just about being grateful for the overwhelming support like we have here today we find comfort and caring for our fallen families and we are just in awe of the strength and the resilience that they have for heing about us as well and they've lost more than we can all ever imagine so we hold them close to us as we walk along this New Path together so we focus on remembering Matt Paul and Adam for the exceptional men that they were every day amazing husbands Fathers and Sons who love the outdoors who love their families their dogs who made people laugh and smile with their humor their legacy their lives live on in our hearts our community and all who had the privilege of serving with them and Chief jungman and I are so extremely proud of our police and fire teams together this past year our Department's focused on healing and honoring the memory of our fallen partners and we also honored our fallen families we took care of each other and we did not let this incident Define or break us we have come a very long way together and we are just so proud of them and we know that Matt Paul and Adam wouldn't have wanted us to feel broken so our police officers our firefighter paramedics continue to show up every day with unwavering courage and dedication just as their fallen Partners did they all serve as an inspiring example for law enforcement officers firefighter paramedic EMS and the public safety community at large we remain grateful for the strength of our community so many that are here today or listening in with us our Public Safety brothers and sisters and the countless individuals and organizations that continue to step up and care for us we're also grateful to our non-sworn staff who continue to serve with honor in the work that they do for our community every day they have also taken great care of us over this past year we know how impactful losing Matt Paul and Adam was across the state and the country but it was especially impactful for our community so our hope is that our community will find peace in being present here today spending a moment with the three Memorial wreaths or reflecting on the sacrifice Public Safety willingly takes on to protect and serve let us not forget the selfless sacrifice of Officer Matt rugie officer Paul elmr and firefighter paramedic Adam fth as we honor our fallen we also remember our Minnesota law enforcement brothers who were killed in the line of duty last year and all of our brothers and sisters across the country who also gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to a job that they loved thank you so much I'm going to turn it back over to city manager Lindberg to our community thank you for the steadfast Support over the last year join me in continuing to do so and do the same for the men and women who choose to put the uniform on day in and day out to care for each of us thank you for being here to honor Paul Matt and Adam they are heroes throughout the day the community is encouraged to gather with us at the three wreaths outside City Hall to remember and honor them City facilities will be lit red and blue and the City flag will be flown at half staff in honor of our fallen heroes and their families thank you