HONESDALE, Pa. — An Eagle Scout from Wayne County is honoring a detective who died in the line of duty almost a century ago.
Wayne County officials and members of law enforcement gathered outside of the Wayne County Courthouse for a special presentation from John Rodriguez of Honesdale. Rodriguez has spent the past four months working on his Eagle Scout project to rename the road around the courthouse after Wayne County Detective George Knapp.
"Detective Knapp was shot and killed in the line of duty in 1923, actually during a raid on a moonshining still in Equinunk. So it's not something you see today, but definitely a part of Wayne County history," Rodriguez said.
The plan to rename the loop in Det. Knapp's honor has been in the works since 2018. Wayne County Det. Robert Langman found out about Knapp and wanted to find a way to honor a fellow law enforcement officer who lost his life in the line of duty.
"I think he just got lost in history. It was something that, back in the 1920s, when things like this occurred, there wasn't a lot of fanfare. It wasn't how they have it today," Det. Langman said.
After a brief ceremony, Rodriguez revealed the newly named Det. George B. Knapp Memorial Lane. Now, Det. Knapp's legacy lives on.
"I'm glad we finally kind of discovered more about Det. Knapp and May 3 marked 99 years since his death, so it was definitely about time."
There's one more missing link to this story. Det. Langman and Rodriguez wanted to track down George Knapp's family but haven't been able to locate them.
"If anybody hears this and knows that they were related to George B. Knapp from Honesdale, please reach out because we would be more than honored to share this legacy and the information that we have with him," Det. Langman said.
Next May, Wayne County detectives are planning another memorial on the 100th anniversary and hope they can connect with Knapp's relatives by then.
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