Benefit concert to help families of deceased officers

NORFOLK

A concert is planned Friday at Granby Theater to raise money for relatives of four men who spent their days enforcing laws and protecting the public.

Jeremy V. Barnes, Michael S. Cagni, Neil T. Guay and Randy Vaiden died off duty, which left their families unable to receive the state and federal compensation extended to survivors of police officers killed in the line of duty. Each officer left behind children younger than 18.

"It's as much about raising money as it is letting people know who these guys were," said Terence Hill, the organizer, who hopes the concert will bring in $20,000. Hill, who is the brother-in-law of Vaiden, also is known as former WNOR-FM 99 sports reporter Rod Fitzwell.

Vaiden, 30, worked for five years as a Virginia Beach police officer. He died Oct. 10, 2007, after a car crashed into his sport utility vehicle and sent it spinning into a pole. Guay, 38, was a federal air marshal who worked out of Norfolk. He died June 8 after being stung by an insect, while Barnes, 31, was an FBI agent recognized as one of the top fraud investigators in the state before he died Jan. 26 of meningitis. Cagni, who spent 17 years as a Norfolk sheriff's deputy, died Jan. 18 at age 42 after a lengthy fight with cancer.

FM 99 DJ Rick Rumble will serve as emcee, and the concert will feature rock band Dynamohum and Hill's band, Badge 369, which takes its name from Vaiden's ID number. The Newport News Police Pipes and Drums also will perform.

Doors open at 6 p.m. The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20. The event is covered by sponsors, so all proceeds will go toward the families, Hill said.

Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com