SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Nearly a year ago, Ogden Police Department Officer Nathan Lyday was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call. On Thursday, his memory was honored in a somber and moving ceremony at the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol.
Rifle shots, doves, and bagpipe music filled the air as Lyday’s widow, Ashley, added his plaque, the 147th to go on the memorial wall.
“It is a huge honor for our family to have Nathan remembered and honored,” officer Lyday’s mother, Nancy, told ABC4 News through her tears. “For being 24 years old, he left quite a legacy.”
Lyday had only been an officer for 15 months when he was fatally wounded on May 28, 2020.
“You feel like it happened just yesterday, but then it’s been almost a year,” Nancy said. “I can’t believe it, and I do, I pick up the phone ‘I’ve got to tell Nate,’ and that doesn’t go away.”
Officer Lyday’s Father, Andrew, spoke at the ceremony.
“I still keep expecting to come around the corner at the house and show up and say ‘Sorry. I was gone for a little but but I’m back’,” Andrew told attendees. “Or to get a phone call from him. I still have the urge to call him at times just to catch him up on things and just to talk.”
Even though Lyday is gone, his service and sacrifice live on with a permanent place on the wall and in the hearts of his family.
“We hear ‘Never Forgotten’ but little by little, it’s just a natural occurrence, but there’s always going to be a little piece of Nate,” Nancy said. “Now I have someplace you can come and have a little piece and remember the things that he stood for that was right.”
In October, the Lydays plan to travel to Washington D.C., where their son’s name will be added to the National Fallen Officers Memorial.
Also on Thursday, officials added a plaque to the Utah wall honoring Highway Patrol Trooper Franklin Schaerrer, who was injured on duty in 1945 and later died from complications.
