Former PSPD sergeant honors fallen officers with statues
A former sergeant with the Palm Springs Police Department is creating statues of fallen officers Jose “Gil” Vega and Lesley Zerebny. Marc Melanson worked on the statues for months creating them out of wax in order to make them into statues. Melanson was a 33-year veteran of the police force and retired in 2012.
He said it was his way of honoring the two officers’ sacrifice as he had been a sculptor since he was young.
“The tragedy of losing the officers hit everyone really hard and I wanted to do something since I was no longer with the police department,” he said. “I wanted to help in some way.”
The statues were built in a way where the likeness of Officer Vega was leaning in for a conversation with Officer Zerebny. Melanson wanted to create the student teacher relationship between them. Officer Vega was Zerebny’s field training officer.
“I always felt that sculptures are very lasting throughout history,” he said. “Sculptures can tell you the story of us.”
Melanson created the statues by carefully going over photos of the two officers provided by family and other officers. He also raised over $4,000 online in order to get the statues to a foundry where it would be bronzed. Melanson was appreciative of the community support.
“It’s overwhelming,” he said. “I am so astonished of how much interest there is with them and how generous people are. They opened up their hearts and some of their checkbooks.”
He hopes to create more statues in order to give to the families of Vega and Zerebny and is looking to raise money to do that. Anyone interested can go to the GoFundMe page here.
