A memorial to fallen Minneapolis Park Police officer Mark Bedard has been unveiled at Minnehaha Park in a ceremony attended by his family and others.

Bedard, 34, was killed in November 2007 while responding to a drive-by shooting. While chasing a suspect on foot, he was struck by a Minneapolis Police Department squad car and died a week later.

The memorial, dedicated Tuesday, features a bronze plaque set in a boulder, a bench, walkway and plantings. It is located just south of the park's formal garden and pergola along Minnehaha Avenue S., and it is in view of a tree that Bedard's parents had planted in their son's memory.

The dedication was held to coincide with National Peace Officers Memorial Day and was attended by Bedard's wife, Andrea Mathieu, and their son, Nicholas. Also on hand were Park Police officers, Park Board staff and law enforcement representatives from other jurisdictions.

Bedard is the only Minneapolis Park Police officer to have died in the line of duty.

Fellow officers donated more than $9,000 for the plaque and boulder. The Park Board allocated $50,000 toward the memorial's other features.

Dennis McGrath
Family members attended the unveiling of a memorial to Mark Bedard, a Minneapolis Park Police officer who died in the line of duty in 2007. Bedard’s widow, Andrea Mathieu, and son, Nicholas, read the inscription on the plaque.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482