Cpl Paul J. Sweeney III was 26-years-old and lived with his wife, Gail, and their two children – Gail, 4, and Paul John II, 3 – in the Roselle area near Elsmere.
While on duty, the night of Oct. 20, 1972, he was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident. On November 30, 1972, Cpl. Sweeney succumbed to his injuries.
A Salesianum School graduate, he was sworn as a county officer July 7, 1968, serving as patrolman and detective. He was studying at what was then Delaware Technical & Community College for a police science degree.
Sweeney – promoted posthumously to corporal – was the first officer killed on duty since the force formed in 1911