IMPD Officer Leath Honored One Year After Death

It’s been a year since Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer Breann Leath was killed in the line of duty. On Friday, city leaders, law enforcement officials and family returned to Crown Hill Cemetery to honor Leath’s service.

On the afternoon of April 9, 2020 Leath was shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call. IMPD Commander Richard Riddle said her death came at the height of the pandemic shutdown.

“Her funeral service was the first and only one of it’s kind to be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Riddle said.

Leath was a former Indiana National Guard member, a corrections officer and a mother.  IMPD Chief Randal Taylor said 24-year-old Leath was special.

“You could not see her, speak to her, or just be around her without knowing how special she was,” Taylor said.

Numerous initiatives and programs have been implemented in her honor, including a joint law enforcement effort to address domestic violence.

Jennifer Leath said her daughter had always wanted to be an officer and to make a difference in people's lives.

“Though it put a ginormous hole in our hearts and in our family, she went out doing what she wanted to do from the beginning,” Leath said.

On Friday, the Indiana Women's Prison, where she had also worked, rededicated a maternity unit in her honor.