It’s now been more than a week since Pierce County Deputy Daniel McCartney was killed in the line of duty. Since then, thousands from all over the country have honored the fallen deputy in a variety of ways.
Michael Reagan is a Vietnam Veteran and an artist who has dedicated his career after combat to drawing portraits of fallen soldiers.
Since 2003, Reagan has drawn more than 5,200 portraits as part of his Fallen Heroes Project, but a few years back the effort took a small turn. He started drawing fallen emergency responders.
“I’m going to say the last three years my low estimate is I’ve done 100 of these, but I’ll bet I’ve done almost two hundred,” Reagan said.
Last week he drew fallen Deputy Daniel McCartney.
“The official thing is he was responding to a break-in call, and he was trying to get to a place to protect the people that were potential victims,” Reagan said. “But I know that what he did was he said it’s my job to make the people secure and it cost him everything he had and it cost his family the most important thing they had too.”
This week Reagan, just like he always does with this project, donated this portrait to the grieving McCartney family. The portrait shows the face of the 34-year-old Navy Veteran, husband, and father.
“This picture just means I care. I care from the minute I heard about the tragedy,” Reagan said. “The kids are going to look at this picture and see their dad looking at them. It’s going to help them in ways they don’t yet. But it’s going to be their dad hanging on the wall looking at them.”
“I’m drawing a hero,” Reagan said with emotion. “A hero who died protecting his community.”
The public is encouraged to line the streets for a procession honoring Deputy McCartney on Wednesday.
The procession will begin around 11 a.m. and will travel from the North Gate of Joint Base Lewis McChord to Pacific Lutheran University for a memorial service. The procession will last about 45 minutes.
The memorial service will be held at Olson Auditorium on 10th Avenue and 124th Street South in Tacoma at 1 p.m. and is open to the public.
Watch coverage of the procession and memorial service on KING 5, king5.com, the KING 5 Facebook page, and the KING 5 app.
