11-year-old boy to honor fallen RSO Deputy with memorial run
A Florida boy plans to run to honor the the memory of a Riverside County Sheriff deputy who died while battling coronavirus.
Zechariah Cartledge,11, will dedicate a one-mile run to Deputy Terrell Young, who died Thursday, April 2. Cartledge will carry the thin blue line flag during his run.
According to the Running 4 Heroes website, Cartledge “runs one mile for every First Responder who makes the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. He wants to honor those who gave up their life so we may live in a better world.”
The run for Deputy Young is set for 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Organizers say it is scheduled be live streamed on the Running 4 Heroes Facebook page.
According to Riverside County Sheriff Bianco, Terrell Young was assigned to the Murrieta jail and was evidently exposed to COVID-19 during the week of March 15-21 while transporting an inmate to the Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley for an examination.
Since then, 22 sheriff's employees assigned to the jail have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Testing of employees and inmates is continuing, and those detainees confirmed to be infected have been placed in isolation,
according to the sheriff.
A run for another Riverside County Sheriff’s Department employee may also be ahead for Cartledge. The RSO shared the news on Friday that 22-year veteran Deputy David Werksman had succumbed to complications due to COVID-19. Werksman died Thursday, hours after Terrell Young succumbed to viral complications, according to the sheriff's department.
Bianco confirmed that 26 sheriff's employees have been diagnosed with COVID-19, while 13 inmates have been verified as infected. Two employees have been hospitalized.
An organizer of Running 4 Heroes confirmed that the runs are based on line of duty deaths as posted on the Officer Down Memorial page.
“Zechariah has been doing this for over a year now and has run over 425 miles since starting this back in January of 2019. He runs for every Officer and Firefighter lost in the line of duty.” an organization spokesperson told News Channel 3.
You can find more information on the Running 4 Heroes website.
