National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

Officer Rank: Patrolman

Memorial Panel: 43-W: 4

Department: Cleveland, Ohio, P.D.

End of Watch: July 23, 1968

Cause: SHOT

Age: 33

Years of Service: 8

Description: Patrolman Golonka, Lieutenant Leroy Jones and Patrolman Willard Wolff were ambushed and shot by sniper fire. Patrolman Golonka was responding to the broadcast of "policemen being shot at" when he too was fatally shot in the chest several times, while searching for men in the backyard of a house. The incident, which became known as the Glenville riot, lasted for five days and left 14 officers wounded. A fourth officer, Patrolman Thomas J. Smith, was also shot in this incident and died as a direct result of the injury on March 9, 1993. Their assailant, a radical militant, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.