In the news

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Trooper Charles Black was shot and killed while responding to a bank robbery at First National Bank of Biddeford in South Berwick, Maine just before 10 a.m.

Trooper Black was off-duty that day, but was required to report to the municipal courthouse behind the bank to prosecute a traffic violation. He was in uniform when he responded to shouts from civilians on the street that the bank was being robbed... Read More

During National Police Week, May15-22, 2016, Mark Nickerson, President of the Maine State Troopers Foundation, escorted the widow of Trooper Charles Black to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, DC. Here’s Mark’s account of the trip.

Recently I had the honor and privilege to make a trip to Washington DC for the sole purpose of removing an item from an elderly lady’s Bucket List. The lady? Her name is Mary Black Andrews. The item on her Bucket List? To see her husband’s name on the National Law Enforcement’s Officers Memorial Wall... Read More

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Exactly 50 years ago last Wednesday, two armed robbers wearing masks barged into the First National Bank on Main Street in South Berwick, Maine, and killed Maine State Trooper Charlie Clinton Black as he tried to intervene.

The robbers, Joseph Roderick MacDonald, then 32, and Wayne Edward Beckus, then 26, were both apprehended. One was captured in front of the bank and the other was arrested in Somersworth after a lengthy police chase... Read More

York, ME – The family of a fallen Maine state trooper was asked to take down a Thin Blue Line flag honoring the 55th anniversary of his murder in the line of duty out of concerns it was offensive.

Charlie Black, the son of fallen Maine State Police Trooper Charles Black, put the flag on a telephone pole at the York Street intersection of his family’s compound on Andrews Way in early July, according to the Bangor Daily News... Read More

YORK, Maine — Last May, Charlie Black ran in Boston’s Run to Remember, an annual road race in honor of Massachusetts police officers killed in the line of duty. Surrounded by thousands of fellow runners, the thought crossed his mind more than once, “I’d like to think they’re running for my dad.”

Black is named for his father, Maine Police Trooper Charles Black, who was killed in the line of duty responding to a bank robbery in South Berwick in July 1964, just weeks before his son was born. It’s a legacy, Black said, that still affects him, and he knows it contributed to the suicide death of his brother Bill 40 years later... Read More

YORK, Maine — In July 2018, the town of York was embroiled in controversy over a flag. 

The flag was a Thin Blue Line American flag, a flag meant to honor law enforcement officers and their families. 

It was put up by a Charlie Black and his wife Steph to honor his father, a Maine State Trooper who was killed in the line of duty.

Some people in town saw the flag as a symbol of racism. 

"We were just trying to celebrate my dad and the ultimate sacrifice that he made," said Black... Read More