320-Mile Bike Ride To Honor Slain FBI Agent Finishes In Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A special bike ride in honor of a Pittsburgh woman arrived in the area on Friday.
The event is called Martha's Ride, in honor of FBI special agent Martha Dixon Martinez.
She was from Pittsburgh and was shot and killed while on duty in Washington D.C. in 1994. She was the first female agent in the Knoxville field office to be certified as a SWAT team member.
"She died a hero," said Ed Dixon, Martinez's brother said.
"The FBI, they knew they had lost a very special person," he added.
Every year, a group of cyclists makes the 320-mile ride from the FBI's field office in Washington D.C. to the FBI building in Pittsburgh.
They pulled into the Pittsburgh office Friday with a police escort.
Family members of Dixon also stopped by at the Pittsburgh office. The FBI field office gave the family a commemoration for her service, and her family gave the field office a custom made biking jersey in her memory.
Her brothers also organize The Martha Foundation, which builds and rehabilitates playgrounds in Western Pennsylvania.
"She was full of life," Ed Dixon said.
The ride raises money for various charitable organizations in Martinez's memory.