Victor Lozada Jr. was studying to be a music teacher when his father, a Dallas police corporal, died in 2008 after crashing his motorcycle while escorting a motorcade.

Now, Lozada uses music to honor him and other Dallas officers killed in the line of duty. The choir director leads his elementary school students and the Dallas police choir at the city’s annual police memorial service.

“Every year, it flares up and you get emotional again,” Lozada, 31, said Wednesday, tearing up.

This year’s memorial service was more somber than in the past. Four names were added to the Dallas Police Memorial, which now honors 84 Dallas police officers.

“This year, our hearts overflow with grief over the loss,” Mayor Mike Rawlings told the crowd of hundreds at the start of the ceremony.

Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Patrick Zamarripa and Michael Smith died last summer after a lone gunman ambushed officers downtown. Dallas Area Rapid Transit Officer Brent Thompson was also killed. He will be honored at a ceremony Thursday.

Lozada and his students teamed up with a composer last fall to write a song about the ambush. They performed it during the ceremony.

“You see those five families from last July and I feel for them,” Lozada said.

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Interim Police Chief David Pughes thanked the families for their sacrifices and said he prays there won’t be more on-duty deaths.

"We know that good doesn't always conquer evil, and today is a reminder of that," Pughes said. "But where would we be if good people didn't answer God's call to fight bad people?"‬

84 Dallas police officers have been killed in the line of duty. They will be honored today in a ceremony at the Dallas Police Memorial. pic.twitter.com/wnN8z6qM2k — Naheed Rajwani (@naheedrajwani) May 17, 2017

Dallas Police officer Ron Cunningham sits with a riderless horse as 21 Gun Salute officers file in formation during Wednesday's memorial service for fallen peace officers. (David Woo/The Dallas Morning News) (David Woo / Staff Photographer)

Relatives of the fallen officers stood as their names were called during Wednesday’s ceremony.

The service was punctuated by a 21-gun salute, renditions of taps and "Amazing Grace," a riderless horse and a flyover by the police helicopter.

Zamarripa’s mother, Valerie, wore a button with her son’s police portrait. The officer’s 3-year-old daughter wore a blue and white striped dress.

The family had traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier in the week for a national ceremony commemorating officers slain in the line of duty.

Valerie Zamarripa said after the Dallas ceremony that she wants her son’s memory to stay alive.

“We always have to respect who these police officers are,” she said. “He is my son and will always be my son.”

It was a day of reflection for the officers’ relatives, colleagues and those who didn’t know them but wanted to pay their respects.

Severo Perez, center, criminal justice instructor, Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center stands with his students during the annual service for fallen officers, Wednesday, May 17, 2017. (David Woo/The Dallas Morning News) (David Woo / Staff Photographer)

Severo Perez, who teaches criminal justice at the Judge Barefoot Sanders Magnet Center in Dallas ISD, brought his students to the ceremony. Perez is a former state trooper whose partner was killed in a routine traffic stop in 1983.

Perez said he and Trooper Russell Lynn Boyd had switched shifts the day Eliseo Moreno killed Boyd and five other people in a 50-hour rampage near Houston.

On Wednesday, Perez encouraged his high school students to talk to relatives of the fallen Dallas officers to understand what it’s like to be in law enforcement.

“It’s sad because I want to do this when I grow up and my family’s going to be put in the same situation when I go to work,” said 15-year-old Kylie Cox, who wants to be in the FBI. “But to me, personally, this makes me want to do it even more, to protect people.”

Students from Pecan Creek Elementary School wait in line to etch the name of Senior Cpl. Victor A. Lozada Sr., who died on February 22, 2008. The students sang with the Dallas Police Choir during the memorial service for fallen peace officers on Wednesday. Victor Lozada Jr. is the school's choir director. (David Woo/The Dallas Morning News) (David Woo / Staff Photographer)

Victor Lozada Sr.’s name on the police memorial had a steady line of visitors Wednesday. His son’s choir students lined up behind the name to trace it on paper they took home as keepsakes.

Many of them stuck around to hug the officers who attended the ceremony.

Lozada Sr. had moved to Dallas from Houston to become a cop. He died after losing control of his motorcycle on the Houston Street viaduct while escorting presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s motorcade. It was a Friday.

That Monday, the younger Lozada told his family they should get back to their normal lives because that’s what his father would have wanted.

“Always do what makes you happy, and the rest will fall in place,” his father often told him.

But moving on has been hard. And seeing the families of the ambush victims from last year makes it harder.

“I wish I could tell them the pain goes away, but it doesn’t,” Lozada said, his voice shaking as tears streamed down his cheeks. “The pain will never go away, but we are a family and the police department is there for them — all the time.”