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Forensic artist helps families of fallen officers grieve though his artwork

PHILADELPHIA — His art usually helps put alleged criminals behind bars, or put a face to a name. But a police officer and forensic artist is using his talents to help ease the pain of the family members of first responders who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Johnny Castro, who is a retired military police officer, has loved to draw for a long time, telling CNN that he learned a lot from his father when it came to creating portraits.

A year and a half ago, during his spare time, Castro began to draw and digitally paint portraits of police officers who were killed protecting their cities, not just in the U.S., but in places all around the world, CNN reported.

The Philadelphia Police Department suffered the sudden and unexpected loss of one of our young officers, Police Officer...

Posted by Jonny Castro Art on Thursday, March 16, 2017

He includes in the portraits the accolades that the first responders earned posthumously.

Castro has created more than 100 portraits, CNN reported.

Sometimes he’ll work on two or three portraits a week.

He sends copies to the family members of the fallen, but also adds the portraits to his personal wall of heroes, which includes all of the portraits he has created.