Bridge dedication held in Tabor City to honor fallen officer

TABOR CITY, NC (WWAY) — A special bridge dedication ceremony was held in Tabor City on Friday in honor of a law enforcement officer who died 30 years ago. 

The bridge is named after Officer Franklin D. Perritte and is located where NC 410 crosses Beaver Dam Swamp.  

A native of Tabor City, Perrittee, who most people knew as “Frankie,” was an enforcement officer with the NCDMV. 

He died on Valentine’s Day in 1995 after crashing during a high-speed chase near Fayetteville.  

Perritte’s family attended the ceremony, along with former co-workers like Tabor City Police Chief Donald Dowless. 

The family says Dowless was the driving force behind making the memorial happen.  

“His wife and his kids would come by every day, they would bring him to work, and the kids would aggravate messing with my equipment,” Dowless recalled. “One thing, Frankie would give you the shirt off of his back. A lot of people talk about he would grow a garden and he would bring everybody, you didn’t have to cut in the garden, he would pick it for the old people in the community.”  

By all accounts—Perritte was closely tied to his community.  

His nephew Derick Perritte says Frankie often stepped in as a father figure for kids who needed it.  

“Anyone that had issues, or if the family had issues, anything along those lines, he was the first to step in and he raised several,” he said. “There was a couple here today who lived with him 5 to 10 years at the time.”  

That compassion is something that always stuck with Frankie’s brother—Danny O’Neal Perritte—who says the lessons his brother shared still resonate today.  

“Time has taught me a lot more. He was always settled, but I was hard headed,” he said. “A long time ago, I stayed in trouble a lot, but thank the Lord, it’s turned around.”  

O’Neal says it brings him comfort knowing all these years later, his brother will finally get the recognition he deserves.  

“I’ll probably drive by everyday now,” he said.