GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Two metro Atlanta police officers killed in the line of duty were honored Monday as their names joined a memorial to the fallen.
Gwinnett County honored fallen military and public service heroes during its annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, where families, veterans, officers and county leaders filled the room.
Two names joined the Fallen Heroes Memorial this year. Gwinnett County police Officer Pradeep Tamang was shot and killed in February while responding to a fraud call near Stone Mountain.
Years earlier, his family had fled a refugee camp in Nepal for a new life in America.
“He carried his family’s story, their sacrifices and their hopes with him every time he put on a badge,” said Assistant Chief Joel Whitt.
Whitt told the room how Tamang’s family escaped ethnic cleansing in Bhutan and spent 17 years in the camp before resettling in the United States.
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Tamang was 9 when they arrived. He went on to earn a master’s degree before joining the department.
The ceremony also honored DeKalb County police Officer David Rose, who went to high school in Gwinnett County and died responding to the CDC shooting last year.
The man who trained him at the police academy remembered what drove him.
“He wanted to build a life for his family that he could be proud of,” said Sgt. T. Jones, his lead academy instructor.
For the families left behind, the tributes and the crowd turned private grief into shared remembrance.
Ingsama Subba, Tamang’s fiancée, said the support has carried her.
“I wanted to thank everybody who has sent things to us. I really do appreciate it, and our whole family appreciates it a lot,” she said.
For Subba, this is the place she can always come back to find Tamang.
“He’s always going to be remembered. Makes me grateful. He’s never going to be forgotten,” she said.