Honor Roll

David Joseph Nelson

At approximately 2:37 a.m. on Friday, June 26, 2015, Bakersfield Police Officer David Nelson made a car stop and a pursuit involving an unlicensed silver Hyundai ensued. Bakersfield dispatch lost radio contact with Officer Nelson and at approximately 2:40 am two other officers located Officer Nelson’s patrol vehicle which had slammed into a wall and was partially engulfed in flames. Officer Nelson was transported to Kern Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries at approximately 3:05 am.

On Saturday evening, June 27, a male 32-year old driver and apparent sole occupant of the silver Hyundai was arrested.

Officer David Nelson is the first Bakersfield Police officer to be killed in the line of duty since Officer William Leonard Sikola who was also killed in a vehicle pursuit in 1983. Officer Nelson, 26, was a 2-year veteran with the Bakersfield Police Department and is survived by his parents and siblings.