Community Honors Fallen Prince George's Officer

Family, friends and fellow officers are gathering at a public viewing to honor Prince George's County Police Officer Adrian A. Morris. Morris was only 23 when he was killed in a crash during a highway chase last week.

It's not just family, friends and fellow officers of Adrian Morris who are coming to pay their final respects, however. It's also people who Morris touched in one way or another.

"He's so kind. Very humble. He always smiles," says Monica Taylor, who owned a restaurant where Morris had breakfast every morning, including the day of the crash. "The first time I met him I said, 'You are too smart to be an officer.'"

This afternoon's viewing for Adrian Morris is the start of two days of memorial services for Morris. He was killed when the cruiser he was driving plunged off the road during a high speed chase of two suspected car thieves.

Morris emigrated from Jamaica, grew up near Laurel, Md., and became a U.S. citizen in 2009. He'd been with the department for two and a half years.

"For Officer Morris, it was a calling, it was a vocation and something he wanted to do from a young age and he did it," says Prince George's County Assistant Police Chief Kevin Davis. "He didn't open up the want ads one day and decide to become a police officer. It was in his heart and in everything he did as a young person and he fulfilled that dream, and his life was cut short."

A funeral service for Morris is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday morning at Woodstream Church in Mitchellville. Burial will follow at Lakemont Memorial Gardens in Davidsonville.