On Oct. 29, 2005 Norfolk Police Officer  Stanley C. Reaves was fatally shot to death during the investigation of a robbery in the Park Place area.
    Reaves, then 33, left behind a wife and two small children. The man who shot him to death  has since been arrested, tried and sentenced to death.
    Reaves had been a Norfolk police officer less than a year before he lost his life in the line of duty.
    Each year several Hampton Roads communities, hold ceremonies honoring  the roll call of police officers who have died in the line of duty on the streets of their locales.
    For the past two years Mrs. Treva Reaves, Officer Reeves’ widow, has attended the ceremony along with other wives and family members.
    Now, a monument has been built near the spot where Officer Reaves was killed which will give the city and the residents of Park Place a chance to remember him.
    At 408 W. 27th St. just around the corner from where Officer Reaves was fatally shot, stands a monument in his honor which is three feet tall.
    According to Eugene “Joe” Rose Sr.,  the man who financed the project, using $2500 of his own money, the memorial is also a symbol of good will toward the people in the community Officer Reaves served.
    Mr. Rose, 73, who lives in Virginia Beach with his wife, moved to Norfolk  to serve the Navy in the early 1960s. He located his young family to the Park Place neighborhood where they lived for over 30 years.
He said he has retired twice, first from the Navy, then the U.S. Postal service, and now he is busy building homes in the region, the state, and the Park Place area.
    The former Park Place resident who says the area has seen the best and worst of times says he felt that something more should be done to honor Officer Reaves' service.
    “The death of a police officer who was only doing his  job of protecting and serving our community is tragic,“ he said. “But I think to show appreciation, a memorial is so necessary. Further I want to show his family, the city  and the world that there are some good things about living in Park Place.”Officer Reaves’ widow agrees.
    “I have been told that  the memorial is such a good gesture from the people who lived there. And there are many good hard working people who do live in that community each day.”
    Mr. Rose placed the monument on property he owns in the community.  He bought and renovated a number of homes in the community and rented them out to families who would not have been able to afford a home, even in Park Place, which is  undergoing a transformation. New-upscale homes are replacing many old and blighted ones....WAIT THIS STORY IS NOT FINISH, TO READ THE COMPLETE STORY CALL US AT 543-6531 AND SUBSCRIBE TODAY.  LET THE NEW JOURNAL AND GUIDE BE YOUR guide FOR NATIONAL AND LOCAL NEWS.