PALM BAY, Fla. — The Brevard County community is honoring two police officers killed in the line of duty more than three decades ago.

On April 23, 1987, lone gunman William Cruse went on a shooting spree in a Babcock Street parking lot.

Six people, including officers Ronald Grogan and Gerald Johnson, were killed in the city's worst ever such rampage.

Today a wreath was laid at the city's Sacrifice Park, marking 31 years since the deadly day.

Several former officers and friends of Grogan and Johnson gathered to remember them at the solemn ceremony.

Palm Bay Police Chief Jim Rogers was a brand new officer hired to take their place on the force.

“I did not know then personally, but because (of) what they did that day, I can tell a lot about them,“ said Chief Jim Rogers of the Palm Bay Police Department. “They loved their job, they loved their community. They wouldn’t have expressed love in that way had they not, to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

Cruse died of natural causes on death row in 2009 at the age of 82.