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rections officer and two Rapid City police officers who were all killed last year.
• Corrections officer Ronald "R.J." Johnson, 63, died in April 2011 at the hands of two inmates who tried unsuccessfully to escape the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Rapid City police officers James Ryan McCandless, 28, and Nick Armstrong, 27, died after being shot last August in a confrontation with a man who also died.
• Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who spoke later at a Pierre church for the conclusion of the memorial event, said Americans should thank law officers who are willing to risk their lives to keep people safe. He said when he visited South Dakota troops in Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago, he had to wear a helmet and body armor everywhere he went.

• "When I got back to South Dakota I was reminded how lucky I was to live in a place like South Dakota, like America, where we can go about our business safely because law enforcement is there to maintain a civilized society and keep us safe and give us freedom because of that safety," Daugaard said.
• A service similar to the one in which the governor spoke was held Wednesday in Bismarck to honor the 61 North Dakota law officers who have died in the

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