Police officers representing departments from across the nation use the white-gloved salute to pay their respects to Youngstown police officer Michael Hartzell outside St. Christine Church in Youngstown, the site of his funeral Mass in May 2003. Hartzell was shot 20 years ago on April 29, 2003, while sitting in his cruiser at a traffic light downtown.

YOUNGSTOWN — Twenty years after Youngstown police Patrolman Michael Hartzell was murdered in the line of duty, Robert DiMaiolo, a fellow officer who was on duty with the slain officer at the time of his death, said he will never be forgotten.

“It seems like it was yesterday,” DiMaiolo said Saturday, which marked the 20th anniversary of Hartzell’s death on April 29, 2003. “I want people to remember him and the sacrifice he made.”

Hartzell, DiMaiolo and Kevin Mercer from Youngstown police responded to a shooting at a West Side bar.

“We had just cleared the scene,” DiMaiolo said. “I went to the South Side and (Hartzell) went downtown to finish the paperwork. He got behind a car and didn’t know it was the shooter.”

Martin L. Kolesar Jr. shot Hartzell in his police cruiser on West Federal Street, killing him. Kolesar fled the scene and was found later in the Tampa Bay area in Florida.

“For 48 hours straight we looked for the suspect,” DiMaiolo said.

Hartzell, 26, joined the Youngstown police force less than three years before his murder. At the time of his death, Hartzell was engaged to be married.

“He was a real good guy,” DiMaiolo said. “He was known for his laugh. Everyone liked him.”

When the call came about an officer shot, DiMaiolo said he “had no idea it was (Hartzell). He wasn’t supposed to be working. He came in when someone else called off. It was something that nobody expected.”

DiMaiolo said he often thinks about Hartzell and has his badge number — 1085 — tattooed on his right bicep.

“He loved being a police officer,” DiMaiolo said of Hartzell.

Kolesar was found guilty on Oct. 31, 2003, of aggravated murder of a police officer as well as attempted murder for shooting Donel Rowe in the chest a few hours earlier at the Casaloma Gardens Lounge on Mahoning Avenue after the two got into an argument. It took a jury less than three hours to find Kolesar guilty.

Hartzell had investigated that shooting and was interviewing witnesses at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital when he went back downtown to the police station to drop off reports. That is when Kolesar got out of his car and hid his gun before firing three shots at Hartzell. One shot struck Hartzell in the chest and the other two in the head.

Kolesar killed himself in his prison cell on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution by hanging on May 7, 2005.

No other Youngstown police officer has been killed on duty since Hartzell’s murder.