IRONDALE, Ala. (WIAT) -- A U.S. Army veteran and Irondale police officer killed in the line of duty is being remembered by his community.
Lt. Mark Meadows was hit by a car Monday morning while directing traffic after a church service. He later died from his injuries.
The city held a vigil for Lt. Meadows on Tuesday night, parking his patrol car out front of city hall where people left flowers and mementos of their love for him. Irondale Mayor James Stewart Jr. said the Meadows family has been a pillar of strength.
"It’s a legacy that’s generational,” said Lt. Jason Hill with the Irondale Police Department.
For 30 years, Meadows served the Irondale community on the police force, touching hundreds of lives. Meadows is described by many as a man of few words, but those who loved him are now trying to find the words to describe his life.
"He won’t be forgotten. Even the little kids at the primary school, they all know who Lt. Meadows is," said Sgt. Brian Hassett with the IPD. "The biggest loss I guess is the loss to the community and his family as a whole. He was just a genuinely good person.”
Those who knew Meadows best said everything he said was intentional and showed how much for cared for the people in his life.
"He just was a true friend, and he demonstrated that. He genuinely cared. When Lt. Meadows asked you, ‘Hey, how’s your day going?’ he truly was asking and wanted to know because if there was something that he could help you with, that’s the kind of friend he was. He just was always there for us,” Hill said. “He was a person of few words, but he was very direct. But he was very intentional, and I think moving forward, that’s something I’m going to take from him is bring direct, being intentional and actually care, and that’s something that will stick with me.”
While Meadows’ family and friends gathered to pray and comfort one another, people who didn’t know him personally also came out to honor his life.
"I just wanted to come pay my respects to a brother officer that put it all on the line," said Bob Klinger, a retired police officer from Colorado now living in Hoover. "I’ve been to too many of these and bless him and his family and all these people that came out and just want them to stay safe.”
"We like to try to control everything and try to make it perfect, try to be secure in ourselves a lot of times, and that just fails in the end," said Eric Frees, who shares a small church group with Meadows' wife Susan. "We all have to trust God. That we have to have something deeper to fall back on because we’re not in control.”
A celebration of life for Meadows will be Thursday at noon on the Grants Mill campus of the Church of the Highlands.