PITTSBURGH -- In an unusual request, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and the Fraternal Order of Police asked Steelers fans to wear special commemorative T-shirts to the game Sunday night as a way to remember three fallen police officers killed in the line of duty on April 4.

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"We're asking everyone to take off their Steelers jerseys and wear their T-shirts," Ravenstahl said. "I'll be doing that at the game Sunday night, and we encourage everybody else to do so. It's a nationally televised game."

Sunday marks six months since Officers Paul Sciullo, Stephen Mayhle and Eric Kelly were shot dead during a standoff at a home in Stanton Heights.

"It still hurts. It was a traumatic experience for us, something that's always in the back of your mind. When it happens to people close to you that you work with, it really sets you back," said Officer Jason Lloyd, who worked with Kelly a while back at Zone 3.

Anyone who has purchased a T-shirt through the official Pittsburgh Fallen Heroes Web site is asked to wear it at Heinz Field when the Steelers play the San Diego Chargers. Proceeds from shirt sales benefit the officers' families. About 70,000 have been sold so far with an extra 1,500 sold Sunday alone.

"This is a small way that we're going to remember the officers and the sacrifice they gave on April 4," said Detective Chuck Hanlon, vice president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1.

"With the holidays coming up, they're not going to have their dad to take them trick or treating. They're not going be there for Thanksgiving. Christmas morning is going to be awful," FOP volunteer George Sugar said. "It's not going to take the place of their dad, but at least we know the holiday will be a little brighter, that there will be presents under the tree. It's just going to help out. They're going to be taken care of."

For more information about purchasing a T-shirt, visit www.pittsburghfallenheroes.com.

The shirts were also be on sale Sunday morning at Trader Jack's in Bridgeville and in front of the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial at North Shore Drive and Art Rooney Avenue before the game.

"We came down to buy another one. I'd like to get myself a tank top and get my wife one, too," said Steve Spinda, who wore his shirt Sunday.

Paying tribute to the officers who were lost in the line of duty is also a way to help current members of the city's police force get through the healing process and "show the families that we continue to be behind them, support them and love them," Hanlon said.

"Let's do this thing, Pittsburgh," Ravenstahl said. "Let's bring everybody together. Let's wear your shirt on Sunday. Let's remember these three officers."

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