Charlotte area police officers started their Bike to DC in Charlotte Thursday morning. (Cindy Mills photo)

Officer Melvin Waller just before pedaling off on the Ride to DC. That’s Kaybri, the daughter of  fellow Davidson officer Paul Lowry, with him.  (Paul Lowry photo)

Davidson Police Officer Melvin Waller climbed onto his bike in Charlotte Thursday at 9am and began pedaling the first of what will be a 500-mile ride to Washington, DC, over the next few days. Waller and about 85 other officers from around the area are taking part in their annual Bike to DC, which honors fallen police officers.

Waller has dedicated his ride to officers including Mark Allen Swaney, a Davidson officer who died on Christmas Day 1997 in an exchange of gunfire that also killed a suspect on Davidson’s West Side.

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Melvin Waller (left) and John Finney posed with a Virginia state police car during this week’s ride. They’ll cover 500 miles in four days.

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

Davidson police officer Melvin Waller hasn’t been bicycling regularly in recent years, but recently he found a cause that inspired him to get back to it. The 37-year-old officer and about 65 other riders, including colleagues from area police departments, are in the midst of a grueling 4-day, 500-mile ride from Charlotte to Washington, D.C., to honor officers who have died in the line of duty.
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