Get a First Look at Dallas' $400,000 July 7 Shooting Memorial

On June 28, the Dallas City Council will have the chance to sign off on the city's first permanent memorial to the five Dallas police officers killed July 7 last year. The proposed memorial sculpture will sit in front of the flagpoles at Jack Evans Police Headquarters in the Cedars, and will cost of $400,000.

A private nonprofit corporation, funded by anonymous donors, will cover the $400,000 plus an additional $40,000 for memorial's ongoing upkeep. The nonprofit has commissioned Barvo Walker, the sculptor who created the statue of former Mayor J. Erik Jonsson that presides over Dallas City Hall's lobby, to complete the project. Walker's sculpture, as proposed to city staff, will be limestone with bronze figurative relief and between 10 feet and 12 feet tall. It will sit on a 6-foot by 8-foot base and include likenesses of each of the officers killed last year. The Dallas city skyline will feature in the background behind the officers.

Each of the dead officers families have given permission for their relative's likeness to be used in the sculpture, according to the city.

Last month, Walker told the city's Cultural Affairs Commission that he anticipates the sculpture could be installed as early as next year.

"We could have some sort of groundbreaking this July 7," he said. "We'll install it next July 7, which will give ample time to do it right."

Walker said that he contacted the city about doing a piece memorializing those killed just after the ambush last July. Since January, he's worked with the Dallas Police Department to find a design that's acceptable to the department and the families of the fallen officers.

"I met with [interim Dallas Police Chief David Pughes] and I met with the police department. I gave them some drawings of other concepts. They didn't care for that," Walker said. "We went back and forth and we came up with this. They approved of this. They loved it and they picked the place they wanted it to be in front of the police department."