‘Their lives matter’

When Andrew Johns began his job in the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office in last June, he observed the rock garden coming in and out of the Justice Complex at 70 Hunter Street in Woodbury.

“I saw the date was 2012 on the sign when it had initially been established,” the new prosecutor remembered. “I figured it was time to renew our commitment to the victims of violent crime.”

Approximately 70 stones – 42 in 2026 – have been added to the garden, which includes one for Deptford police officer Robert Shisler, who died in 2023 two months after he was shot on duty.

The prosecutor’s office held a Crime Victims Remembrance Garden Rededication Ceremony on April 21. Chief of Detectives Steven Ingram made a call to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance. The national anthem was sung by Michael Jones. An invocation was led by the prosecutor’s head chaplain Tony Knight.

“These stones ensure that the individuals that they honor will never be forgotten,” Johns said. “… We recognize one undeniable truth, (that) no amount of support can erase the pain of losing someone.”

What they can do, he added, is “remember.”

“Today gives us that opportunity, a moment to pause from our daily lives and honor those who are no longer with us,” Johns explained. “We remember (them) not only as victims but as the people they were – a spouse, a parent, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sibling – maybe even a friend.

“Their lives matter.”

The Remembrance Garden at the Justice Complex stands as a quiet and enduring tribute to the lives of those lost to violent crime in the community. Originally created and dedicated in 2012 by the prosecutor’s office, it was established to ensure victims are never forgotten and that their names remain a permanent part of the country’s history.

Each stone placed within the garden bears the name of a life taken too soon. Together, the stones serve as a powerful reminder that behind every case number is a person whose memory deserves to be honored with dignity and respect.

“… In the work of prosecution, there’s a constant risk of abstraction,” Johns acknowledged, “of becoming too disconnected with the people who are involved in the cases. Cases become numbers. Victims become file names. And the urgency of the next matter can crowd out the grief from the last one.”

Hence the importance of the garden. Johns noted that the stones do not require daily maintenance.

“It’s a place where memories can be honored,” Johns said, “where families can reflect, where a community can reaffirm a commitment to standing beside the victims and their loved ones.”

The garden also commits “to a safer, more caring society,” added county Commissioner Nicholas DeSilvio, liaison to the prosecutor’s office. “Each victim remembered today is more than a name or headline. They were family, friends, neighbors … people with dreams.”

Johns acknowledged to family members of victims in the audience that a ceremony could never heal the grief.

“I know that justice – even when it comes – does not return what has been taken from you,” he observed. “I’ve sat across tables of enough victims’ families over the years to know that your pain is not observed on a calendar. It does not diminish on any anniversary. It does not go quietly.

“I do not stand before you to suggest that it should.”

What Johns could offer is the work of the prosecutor’s office to benefit families and loved ones of victims.

“Every motion filed, every witness prepared, every argument made in court, it’s done because these lives matter,” he promised. “Your loved ones matter.”

Towards the end of the ceremony, Jones recognized members of law enforcement, victim advocates and members of community who work every day to support victims and families.

The garden ceremony came during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week from April 19 to 25. Since 1981, the initiative has challenged the nation to confront and remove barriers to achieve justice for all victims of crime, according to the Office for Victims of Crime website.

Johns noted that in Gloucester County, officials have expanded language access so everyone has a voice and have grown and created a chaplain’s program. Local chaplains assist the prosecutor’s office and all local police, fire and EMS departments in calls for service, including but not limited to death notifications, unattended deaths, serious injury, motor-vehicle crashes or traumatic events.

“We have created channels so families can ask questions and receive answers,” Johns pointed out to families at the garden ceremony, “because ‘this process belongs to you as much as it belongs to us.”

But Johns admitted there’s still more to do.

“The criminal justice system with all its power has real limitations and loss,” he related. “Cases get delayed. Appeals drag on and some pain unfortunately never finds resolution and guilty verdicts.

“We are honest about that,” Johns added, “even as we work every day to narrow the distance between the justice families deserve and the justice that our system is able to deliver.”

The prosecutor then read the names on the 26 new stones. They were painted – some in bright colors – by members of the Victim/Witness Advocate Department.

They are: Brandon Blanton; Steve Bucher; Alesia A. Burns; David Cardonick; Shawneeq Carter; Edward M. Coles Jr.; Rosemarie Coles; Sylvester C. Combs Jr.; Karen Conner; Florence Dicriscio; Michael Dobkowski; Patricia Dorman; Michael Fazzio; Michael Fleming; Leeann Flotrauer; Qiana Freeman; Jonathan Gardner; Erin Gatier; Oscar Guerrier; Cayden Jones; Melissa Kolonich; Michelle Long; Arlene Mckenna; Dennis McKenzie; Dwayne Mickles; David Morris; Kenneth Mosley; Joy Nugent; Joseph D. Pirri; Davontae S. Randall; Ryon C. Reynolds; Jodeci R. Robinson; Atiba Rose Jr.; Misael Ruiz-Garcia; Amy Schnack; John Scott Jr.; Shisler; Nina Sinclair-Green; Chad Stuart; Amir Tarpley; Michelle Whiting; and Sarah Wilson.