Sunshine faded into the darkness during a short walk in Kaka'ako on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, with many reflecting quietly on the shining spirit of those killed and those who risk their lives daily to save others.

Yesterday's first "Honolulu Remembers ... Never Forget" walk was a somber tribute to the nearly 3,000 people killed when two hijacked airliners slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, another hijacked plane slammed into the Pentagon and a fourth crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa.

Audrey Case, wife of Hawai'i Congressman Ed Case, wore her United Airlines flight attendant's uniform and sobbed during the first segment of the walk from the Ho-nolulu Police Department to the Fire Department's headquarters at the corner of Queen and South streets. A flight attendant for 30 years, her thoughts were of her counterparts of the four airliners, although she did not personally know any of them.

"We're a tight-knit group, and it was a difficult day for all of us," Audrey Case said, adding her job responsibilities have changed dramatically since Sept. 11. "On an airplane, flight attendants are the first line of defense, so I can only imagine what they had to go through."

The thoughts of Honolulu police Deputy Chief Paul Putzulu and Majs. Kurt Kendro and Debora Tandel were with Michael Collins, Anthony Infante and John Skala, and Kathy Mazzo, who were killed at the twin towers.

Collins was Putzulu's brother-in-law, husband of his wife, Laura's, sister, Lessa.

"I'm thinking how senseless his death was, that there are people with so much hatred to take it out on people who had no hatred for them," Putzulu said during the walk. "I continue to wonder why it happened? The one good thing is Lessa's strength; she gets up and goes to work, so if she can do it, I feel we can, too. But she's never gone back to ground zero."

Kendro said Infante and Skala were officers with the New York Port Authority whom he had developed friendships with through law-enforcement torch runs.

"When I see reruns of the towers coming down, it still puts a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes," Kendro said, thinking of his friends who were killed trying to help others at the World Trade Center. "As a cop, you expect traffic stops and gunplay, but we never expected to face a foreign enemy.

"HPD was the first law-enforcement group to be fired upon (on Dec. 7, 1941) in World War II, and nothing happened again until 9/11," Kendro added. "And now, it could happen again, maybe tomorrow."

Tandel met the parents of Mazzo, a New York Port Authority captain, when they came to Hawai'i.

"I asked them if there was anything we could do for them, and all they wanted was to talk to fellow officers about their daughter," Tandel said. "She was a first-responder who shot out glass-revolving doors at one of the towers so people could get out. She didn't get out herself."

Gov. Linda Lingle, Mayor Mufi Hannemann, Congressman Neil Abercrombie, deputy police chief Glen Kajiyama, Fire Chief Kenneth Silva and Dr. Libby Char, head of the city's emergency services, were among last night's speakers. Hannemann presented wreaths at HPD, HFD and the federal building and laid another one at Honolulu Hale, where he recognized nine people with Hawai'i ties killed in the 9/11 attacks.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.