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Last updated on Wednesday, May 10, 2017
(MONROE CO.) - A murdered Monroe County deputy is getting the recognition he deserves, 12 years later.
A dozen years after his death, Sgt. Bill Brand will be honored among federal, state and local law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty.
Members of his family and members of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office will travel next week to Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C. for the annual ceremony to see his name enshrined on the memorial and read aloud during the dedication ceremony.
Also, as part of National Police Week, Deputy Carl Koontz will be honored in Washington D.C. Koontz was shot and killed in March of 2016.
The Memorial features two curving, 304-foot-long blue-gray marble walls. Carved on these walls are the names of more than 20,000 officers who have been killed in the line of duty throughout U.S. history, dating back to the first known death in 1791. Unlike many other memorials in Washington, DC, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial is ever-changing: new names of fallen officers are added to the monument each spring, in conjunction with National Police Week.
In the early morning hours of February 8, 2005, Bill Brand had been driving home to Bedford after working the late shift at the Monroe County Jail. On a dark stretch of Ind. 37 near Zikes Road, when Benjamin Steinberg fired a high-powered assault rifle into Brand's truck, killing him with a bullet to the head, causing the pickup truck to leave the highway and strike a limestone embankment.
In October 2007, 28-year-old Benjamin H. Steinberg was charged with Brand's murder.
Indiana State Police investigators determined Steinberg had purchased an AR-15 and gear for the assault rifle, including a laser sight and tripod, from a Martinsville man for $800. Police alleged Steinberg used an acetylene torch to destroy the weapon after killing Brand.
A jury in October 2009 found Steinberg guilty of murder. Two months later, he received a 65-year sentence. Steinberg is currently serving his time in the Pendleton Correctional Facility's treatment unit. His earliest possible release date is June 2041.
Sergeant Brand had served with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office for eight years. He left behind a wife and 3-year-old child.
"It's like reliving his death over and over again; little cuts, little wounds, little pain. In another way, it's a sense of closure," said Stacy Brand.
National recognition, a dozen years later, Brand's family and law enforcement family feels it's finally the honor he deserves for giving the ultimate sacrifice.
"It's validation of a lifetime of work and that he did something great, he did something for his country, and his life and death was not in vain," said Stacy Brand.
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