Friends and family of fallen Cpl. Scott Wheeler, along with members of the Howard County police, gathered Thursday to remember Wheeler on the two-year anniversary of his death.
 
The gathering, about 30 people in all, took place at 2 p.m. at the scene of the collision that killed Wheeler along Route 32 near Route 1.
 
Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said Wheeler’s loved ones wanted to visit the site, where a cross sits, and the department assigned some traffic officers to make sure they were safe.
 
“We miss him -- he’s a part of the department,” McMahon said. “There’s not a day that goes by for the members of this department that we don’t think about it. It brings up some of the dangers of this job. That was the first line-of-duty death we’ve had in 40 years. It hit the department pretty hard.”

Wheeler, a six-year veteran, was working on a speed enforcement detail on Route 32, near Savage, June 16, 2007, when he was struck by an automobile driven by Stephanie Latoya Grissom, 25, of Columbia, according to police.

At the time of the incident, Wheeler was attempting to flag Grissom's vehicle to the side of the road, police said. Wheeler, of Millersville, was flown to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he died two days later.

In March, 2008, police served Grissom with citations for negligent driving and speeding after a grand jury declined to indict her on a charge of manslaughter by automobile in Wheeler's death, according to police.

After Wheeler's death, McMahon ordered his officers to cease stepping into traffic to pull over speeding cars on roads in which the speed limit is 35 miles per hour or higher.

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