Nearly a year after it lost its second police officer to an injury suffered in the line of duty, the City of Cayce marked Victims’ Rights Week by unveiling a stone honoring the fallen officers.

The stone — honoring Cpt. William Illingworth, Sr., who died in 1991 following an accident suffered while on duty in 1983, and K-9 officer Cpt. Drew Barr, who was shot and killed responding to a domestic violence call on April 24, 2022 — is nestled among the flags in front of Cayce Police headquarters.

It was revealed during a ceremony held on April 21, with multiple public officials in attendance, including Gov. Henry McMaster. The city later marked a year since Barr’s murder with a candlelight vigil held April 25.

The stone, which also features two bible verses — Isaiah 6:8 ("Whom shall I send? / Here am I am send me") and Matthew 5:9 ("Blessed are the peacemakers / For they shall be called son of God") — doesn’t include room for more names.

“We toyed with that whether or not we needed to make the marker bigger, you know, and have additional space,” Cayce Police Chief Chris Cowan said. “That was kind of a thoughtful process for us to say, ‘You know what, we're not going to do that because we're going to continue to pray. We're going to continue to work with our city and our communities and our state and our federal government to provide the best resources, the best equipment possible, the best training possible to our team.’”

During her remarks April 21, Cayce Mayor Elise Partin emphasized the way the community has come together to heal.

“We all hope that tragedy and grief never happen,” she said. “But when it does, what gets us through is each other, taking time together to grieve and to support each other. Our community has done that. And continues to do that.”

Among those who spoke during the ceremony was Illingworth’s son, William Illingworth, Jr.,who reflected on the comfort and the support of the “brotherhood” that comes with being a police officer has been to his family in the years since his father’s passing.

Also present was Drew Barr’s family, with his mother, Sonia Barr, reflecting on the importance of healing without forgetting.

“Drew would be happy with it being here,” she said, “knowing that he’s close to all of them.”

When Barr was killed, his dog partner, Molly, retired and went home to live with his family, which Sonia said has been a great comfort.

“She grieves just like we do,” she said. “She knows when we’re mourning, and we know when she’s mourning.”

Addressing those in attendance, McMaster echoed this sentiment of remembering those who make the ultimate sacrifice for their community. He said that there will always be victims, and as much as we would like to prevent every tragedy, we can’t.

“What we can do is recognize that as people we must prevent it,” McMaster said. “That’s why I’m delighted when I speak to people from other estates to show our law enforcement as an example of the very best in law enforcement, is what we have in South Carolina. We need to do all we can to help them.”