While bagpipers played “Amazing Grace,” mourners followed Louis Pompei’s flag-draped casket out of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. Under a gray and threatening sky, the huge glass sanctuary lacked its usual shimmer. Pompei’s funeral service drew 2,000 people, many of them law enforcement officers.

Pompei, 30, a narcotics agent with the Glendora Police Department, was killed June 9, 1995, during a shootout with robbers at a Vons supermarket in his home city of San Dimas. He had interrupted the robbery while off duty and managed to wound two robbers.

Pompei’s mother Dorothy sobbed quietly as her youngest son’s coffin was carried out by fellow officers and placed in the hearse. His older brothers Chester and Tony stood by her side. His fiancee, Tracey Taylor-Careaga, tearfully hugged her friends as police helicopters flew overhead in the missing man formation.

All the while Pompei’s fellow officers watched somberly. Their pain was unmistakable. All 52 Glendora police officers turned out in uniform in his honor, a black band across each badge. Six of them served as pallbearers, accompanied by an honor guard.

Inside the massive church, Glendora Chief Paul Butler stood before the gathering under a 12-story American flag that hung from the ceiling. Two dozen floral arrangements graced the area of the pulpit, together with photographs of Pompei.

Butler’s voice cracked as he remembered a soldier of the community, a vigorous and athletic officer who died defending his town. “He was a dynamo and a radiance of vitality,” Butler said. “He became involved and died a hero.”

Pompei’s fiancee recalled how he had helped her and her family deal with her brother’s death from cancer the preceding July. “Louis was special,” she said. “He had a rapport with everyone. Even people he arrested sent him letters, thanking him for straightening out their lives. The kids from this neighborhood came over all day today, crying.”

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Pompei graduated from Mahanoy City High School in 1982. He went on to earn a bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice administration from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania in 1986. He was hired as a police officer trainee by the Glendora Police Department in 1987 and attended the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Academy, graduating on March 4, 1988. He was appointed to the rank of agent in 1995.

Pompei was a physical fitness buff, working hard to keep in shape. He competed in the Police Olympics in bodybuilding, finishing second in the men’s open competition. He was part of the Glendora-Monrovia-Arcadia Police Baker to Vegas running team.

About 100 police officers from California, Pennsylvania, New York and Washington, D.C., joined more than 150 other mourners at a Mass for Pompei in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania.

“You need to know that you sent us a hero Glendora police Lieutenant Timothy Crowther said as he choke back tears at Sacred Heart Church. “You should be very proud of him.”

Pompei leaves behind his mother, Dorothy M. Pompei of Mahanoy City Pennsylvania; three brothers; two sisters; and his fiancee, Tracey Taylor-Careaga of San Dimas.

The Glendora Police Officers Association established a scholarship fund in memory Louis Pompei. Contributions can be sent to P.O. Box 1104, Glendora, CA 91741.

the following was submitted by a friend;

Surrender

No more wars to fight
White flags fly tonight
You are out of danger now
Battlefield is still
Wild poppies on the hill
Peace can only come when you surrender

Hear the tracers fly
Lighting up the sky
But I’ll fight on to the end
Let them send their armies
I will never bend
I won’t see you now ’til I surrender
I’ll see you again when I surrender

-Sunset Blvd.

Brea police detective Danny Valenzuela died May 23, 1995, during a routine bicycle training exercise with officers from several Orange County law enforcement agencies.

Valenzuela, 39, collapsed as the cyclists pedaled from the Westminster to the Fountain Valley police firing range. Fellow officers performed CPR on Valenzuela until paramedics arrived. He was taken to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Valenzuela had no known medical condition and was physically fit, supervisors said. “It was totally unexpected,” said Captain James Winder. “We’re still in a really big state of shock here,” Brea Chief James E. Oman said. “Danny was an officer for 14 years. He was a very valuable member of our department. We’re going to miss him terribly.”

“We lost a member of our family. No one to blame it on, nowhere to displace your anger – that’s what makes it hard,” said Lieutenant Mike Messina.

Valenzuela began service on the Brea force as a patrol officer and became a detective in 1990, but remained part of the department’s popular bicycle unit, Oman said. Valenzuela was hired by the Brea department in 1980 as a patrol officer. In 1987 he joined the motor patrol where he served until becoming a detective. He was the first Brea officer to die on duty since the city was incorporated in 1917.

Captain Tom Christian wrote about Valenzuela: “Danny was a peacemaker. With his quiet and sure manner, he was able to restore calm to the most troubled situations.

“Danny was a team player. How many times did he put aside his own work to assist others? How many times did we hear his voice on the radio volunteering to back up an officer on an alarm call or a family fight?

“Danny was a leader. He was at the forefront of change. He was a charter member of the Crimes Suppression Unit, the Bicycle Patrol and the Peer Counseling Team.

“Danny was a giver. So many times when faced with manpower shortages and a lack of volunteers, he would offer his services.

“Danny was a teacher. He believed in teaching by example. He ‘walked like he talked.’

“Danny was a facilitator. He worked on the city manager’s task force on the Job Center and helped make this difficult project a reality.

“Danny was a healer He was capable of handling emotional and difficult people in situations that few others could manage. His calm and friendly manner soothed the angry and comforted the distraught. He intuitively knew the right things to say and do.

“Danny was a caretaker. Whether working over a drowning victim to restore life, evacuating people from the line of fire or working as a hostage negotiator, he gave himself completely to the care of others.

“When I think of these things, I think of Danny. But mostly, when I think of Danny, Danny was my friend. ‘Danny siempre vive en nuestro corazon.’ Goodbye, Danny.”

Valenzuela is survived by his wife Jean and children Diana, 17; Brian, 15; Sarah, 8; and Christopher, 4.

A memorial fund was established for Valenzuela’s family. Donations can be mailed to the Danny Valenzuela Memorial Fund, c/o Brea Police Officers Association, P.O. Box 243, Brea, CA 92622.

Deputy Jimmie Richard Henry was a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff assigned to Avalon Station on Santa Catalina Island. On June 19, 1984 a U.S. Navy F-18 fighter crashed into the island above White’s Landing.

Deputy Jimmie Henry came to work from his day off and responded to the location. There, he inhaled smoke from the burning aircraft without breathing apparatus. The smoke consisted of burning graphite and other unknown classified composite materials. Due to his inhalation exposure, his health gradually deteriorated. He developed pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis, suffered chronic lung disease and had a lung transplant. Due to his continuing medical problems he was forced to retire on October 25, 1990 and on May 12, 1995 he died at UCLA Medical Center, five months following a lung transplant.

Two other deputies at the crash site also developed documented long term respiratory problems. Although they have not succumbed to their exposure, both were granted worker’s compensation awards and given lifetime medical coverage as to their lungs.

Departmental reports, the Coroners report, medical records, and affidavits from fellow deputies all support, and make a rather strong case, that Deputy Henry’s single exposure to toxic carcinogens on June 19, 1984, while on duty, was the proximate cause of his untimely death on May 12, 1995. He was 49 years old.

Deputy Henry was survived by his wife Susan (since remarried) and his son David.

More than 4,500 relatives, friends, law enforcement officers and government officials turned out in Downey to honor slain Los Angeles County Deputy Stephen W. Blair.

Among those attending the service at Calvary Chapel were Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, District Attorney Gil Garcetti, at least 30 chiefs of police from throughout California, and members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Lynwood City Council.

After the service, Blair’s body was escorted to Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier by a motorcade of 300 law enforcement motorcycles and 500 patrol cars. At the request of Blair’s fellow officers at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Century Station, thousands of Southern California motorists drove with their headlights on all day May 18 to show support for law enforcement.

Blair, 31, was shot to death May 12, 1995, after he and his partner got out of their patrol car at a park in Lynwood to question suspected gang members, one of who was seen tossing away what later was found to be a loaded pistol.

Two days later, one suspect in the shooting surrendered to deputies in Lynwood. He was cleared in the shooting. The day of the funeral, Gov. Pete Wilson announced the addition of $100,000 to the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Blair’s killer.

The men and women Blair worked with at the Century Sheriff’s Station in Lynwood remembered him for his steadiness, his sensitivity and the rapport he established with almost everyone in town, gang members and law-abiding citizens alike. He was our community cop. This guy had fallen in love with the city” said Lynwood Councilman Armando Rea, also a deputy.

Blair’s first field assignment, after the obligatory new deputy’s stint working the jail, was in Lynwood. Seven years later, after earning the trust and respect of a diverse community, he was the contact person for neighborhood watch groups. Then, little more than a week before his death, he was given a choice assignment: new duty on the sheriff’s gang enforcement team operating out of the Lakewood Station.

When Blair received his new assignment, he told his mother, who still lives in his boyhood home in Pico Rivera, that she should be happy because he was moving to a safer job, recounted Sheriff Sherman Block. “[Blair’s] mother said to me that not too long ago he had told her that ‘If anything ever happens to me, you can take comfort in knowing that I was doing what I wanted to do.”‘

Blair attended St. John Bosco High School and was a sheriff’s Explorer Scout for one year before joining the sheriff’s department in 1985. He married a Lynwood paramedic, Dana, last December.

In addition to his wife, Stephen Blair is survived by three sons from a previous marriage: Stephen, 11; Joseph, 6; and Michael, 5.

A trust fund has been set up for Blair’s sons. Contributions may be sent to Sheriff’s Relief Foundation, 11515 Colima Road, Whittier, CA 90604.

William R. Bolt, a state drug agent and former officer with the San Rafael Police Department, was one of two people killed May 9, 1995, in a head-on crash on state Highway 37 west of Vallejo. The accident came only five days after a state senator urged that Highway 37 be designated a “killer highway” because of its long history of fatal accidents.

Bolt, 48, who was enroute to a two-week departmental training class in Concord, died instantly in the early morning collision near Skaggs Island. Bolt was wearing a seat belt but was apparently killed on impact.

A 31-year-old Fairfield woman driving west in a Toyota Corolla crossed the center line and collided with Bolt’s eastbound Mercury Cougar, said California Highway Patrol Officer Terry Pedrepti. She was also killed.

Funeral services for Bolt were held in his home town, Spirit Creek, Iowa.

Bolt, known to friends as Randy, was a special agent with the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in San Francisco. He had recently married and lived in Petaluma.

Fellow officers who knew Bolt said he was devoted to police work. “Policemen have a way of falling in love with the job, and that’s what happened to Randy,” said San Rafael Officer Jim Cook.

Bolt served as a police officer in San Rafael from 1983 to 1988. He worked as a patrol officer and sexual assault investigator in San Rafael, and had attained the rank of corporal before leaving the department.

“He was a big, easy-going guy who liked riding motorcycles,” San Rafael Chief Bob Krolak said. “He was one of those guys you liked instantly when you met him.”

Krolak noted that Bolt remained friends with a number of San Rafael officers over the years since leaving the department. “A lot of people here are hurting,” he said.

Bolt had been a deputy with the Placer County Sheriff’s Office before he was hired in San Rafael.

Officer Cook said Bolt’s law enforcement career took off after he moved from the San Rafael department to stints with the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in Riverside and San Francisco. “Working narcotics is a world in its own, and Randy really enjoyed that,” Cook said. “He thrived on the undercover work, the stealth, the surveillances.”

Bolt is survived by his wife Sandra [Younglove] and children Steven Bolt and Dianne Maddox, all of Petaluma.

Donations in memory of Randy Bolt may be sent to the S.A. Randy Bolt Memorial Fund, Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program, 1005 A Street, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94901, attn: Mike Grogon.

It was a sight few had seen. Nobody had seen it in Ukiah since 1951: the funeral and memorial service for a fallen peace officer.

Mendocino Sheriff’s Deputy George R. Davis, 48, was shot and killed April 14, 1995 following a gun battle pitting himself and another deputy against a murder suspect, who also was killed. As Davis checked the suspect he was fatally shot from ambush by another suspect.

The memorial service began with a procession of motorcycles, patrol cars and other law enforcement and rescue vehicles. The procession stretched through Ukiah from the south end to the north end. People lined the streets, the sadness in their faces reflecting the loss they felt in their hearts.

The procession ended at Mendocino Community College. The college auditorium was filled with officers from around the state. The bleachers were filled with the families of local officers, the court and district attorney’s staffs and many who came to pay their respects to the fallen officer.

Speakers at the memorial service included Mendocino County Sheriff James Tuso, Lieutenant Charlie Bone, Lieutenant Rich Wiseman, Sergeant Jack Stapleton, Captain Burle Murray and many of Davis’ friends and brother deputies.

The ceremony was officiated by Rick Oliver, a retired peace officer who is now a local minister. His experience gave Oliver special insight into the working and private lives of peace officers, their hopes and fears and what motivates them to dedicate their working lives to serving and safeguarding the public.

Bob Davis was not your typical peace officer. He had already retired from the military after a distinguished career with the elite Navy Seals. Davis graduated from the police academy in Santa Rosa in December of 1987. On January 10, 1988, he began his second career with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department. After completing his field training, he was assigned to the North Area Substation.

He was well respected by his fellow deputies. Several of them recounted how much they had enjoyed working with Davis and how they were always comfortable knowing that he could and would do whatever it took to get the job done.

Those who worked with Davis came up with a nickname that stuck, “Intense Bob.” This was the result of his intense persistence and dedication to the job at hand.

Davis was also intent on seeing people “do time” for crimes they committed. He was known to call the district attorney and talk with her about a case he was involved in. He would inquire how the D.A.’s office was going to proceed with a particular case. If they needed more information, he would be diligent in gathering whatever information they required to bring the case to a “proper” conclusion.

On the other hand, Davis hated overtime. He would give his all while on duty, but he liked his time away from the “office” with his family. He loved fishing and was an avid scuba diver, always ready for a trip to the ocean with anybody who would go with him.

Davis leaves his wife of 12 years, Phyllis; his four children, Trisha, Eric, Cameron and Matthew; and a granddaughter, Tiffany.

Contributions can be sent to the Davis Memorial Trust, Mendocino County Savings Bank, 200 North School Street, Ukiah, CA 95482.

Eugene “Bear” Lincoln walked out of the Mendocino County Courthouse free of criminal charges stemming from the 1995 slaying of Davis. The State Attorney General’s Office announced that a three-month review of evidence led to the conclusion that manslaughter charges could not be proven.

Oakland Unified School District police officer Timothy Blaine Howe of Hercules, 34, was fatally shot April 14, 1995 in East Oakland after stopping a car for a possible traffic violation.

When Howe approached the vehicle, a verbal altercation erupted and he was shot, said Sgt. Tony Hare of the Oakland Police Department. Howe died a short time later at Highland Hospital.

The wedding invitations he and his fiancee had sent were arriving at the homes of friends and relatives. Instead, there would be a funeral.

“I wasn’t planning for a casket, I was planning for a wedding,” said Linda Mussman, Howe’s mother “It’s such a nightmare.”

Officers throughout the East Bay said they also felt like they had lost a family member.

“What happened to Tim could happen to any one of us and because of that, there’s a bond between officers that comes with the job,” said one of his supervisors, Sergeant Bob Scurria. “It’s bad enough to lose any cop, but this one I worked closely with, and it hurts.”

Howe’s death was the first fatality in the Oakland Unified School District police force since its inception 42 years ago.

Police work was in Howe’s blood, said his mother He was born July 16, 1960, in Berea, Kentucky, the son of a state trooper When he was just six units shy of his bachelor’s degree in economics, Howe came home and told his mother, “Mom, I want to be a policeman.”

After going through the academy, Howe started working in the Oakland Police Youth Services Division. He was assigned to patrol schools in the Oakland Unified School District, where he investigated vandalism, burglaries and other crimes involving students.

Linda Mussman said her son tried to make a difference in the East Oakland community. Howe often spent his own lunch money to take abused children to McDonald’s, his mother said. At times he felt it was a losing battle. “I take one gun away, they come back with ten more,” he once told her.

“He was doing what he really wanted to do all his life. It made me really proud. If there’s any consolation, that’s it said Howe’s fiancee, Kendra Peterson. “But it’s not much.”

Howe’s supervisor, Sergeant Harold Boutte, said Howe was too strong to let anything upset his mind. “He talked health, happiness and hope to every student and person he met. He worked only for the best, and only accepted the best. He was too large for words, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to admit the presence of trouble and danger.”

The suspect in Howe’s death was killed April 18 in a hail of gunfire at a roadblock after a four-hour siege in which he wounded three people. At the request of the family, a scholarship fund was created in memory of Howe for Fremont High School students entering criminal law education fields. Checks can be made out to the Tim Howe Scholarship Fund and mailed to Oakland Unified School District Police Services Office, 1025 Second Ave., Room 111, Oakland, CA 94606.

Police officers from across the state were among the 2,000 people who attended a funeral Mass April 19, 1995 for Newport Beach Police Officer Bob Henry.

Henry, shot in the head March 12 by a man who then took his own life, clung to life in a coma for 33 days before he died.

Mourners heard the 30-year-old father of three remembered as a devoted Catholic who made the ultimate sacrifice that shadows the life of every peace officer. Also remembered was his good-hearted sense of humor, his love of surfing, his proposal to his wife on his knee in front of a class-room full of children she was teaching.

After the funeral Mass, hundreds of police vehicles and a fire engine followed the hearse to Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange.

The graveside service was somber. Five police helicopters flew overhead in a missing-man formation. Henry received a 21-gun salute by the Los Angeles Police Department Honor Guard. Row after row of officers, mostly from the Newport Beach Police Department, stood at attention while a trumpeter played “Taps.” The private burial followed a day of public remembrances of Henry at the Mass and at a reception in Newport Beach.

At the Mass, mourners heard the message of Resurrection offered by The Rev. Stephen J. Duffin of St. Catherine of Siena Church. “A whole police force, a whole army, cannot stop death from taking our brother,” said Duffin as Henry’s parents, brothers, sister, wife and three small children stood nearby. “But for us, this isn’t the end, it’s a new beginning.”

The Henry recalled most fondly was a loving friend who used his humor to shepherd those close to him through trying emotional times.

Sheila McHenry, a friend of Bob and Patty Henry, said Henry cheered her up after her cancer surgery. She told Henry that doctors had removed a tumor the size of a volleyball. “Yeah, right,” Henry replied. “The surgery was probably one hour long and they were playing volleyball for the other four.”

Mike Guerena went to school with Henry from first grade through graduation from Mater Dei High School. He recalled the time that a bored Henry, who had landed them both jobs in a mail room, slipped a cardboard box over his torso and began hopping around, only to be surprised by his boss.

The Mass served as a public grieving and the seed of healing for more than 1,000 police officers who came to honor Henry. “No matter where we work, we’re doing the same type of job, striving for a safe community,” said Fremont Police Officer William Caratini. “It could be any one of us at any time.”

Bob Henry was the 38th Orange County officer killed in the line of duty. Newport Beach Police Chief Robert J. McDonell, who offered one of the eulogies, vowed to watch over Henry’s wife and three children: six-year old Bobby, Jenna, 2, and Alyssa, two months old when her father died. “We pledge to you Bob Henry that we will close ranks and protect your family until you are all happily together,” he said through tears.

The loss hit the close-knit Newport Beach force hard, said Officer Mark Hamilton. “Bob gave us hope. Bob gave us courage. Bob gave us strength,” Hamilton said. “On April 13, 1995, Bob gave us his life.”

Contributions to benefit the Henry family may be made to the Robert Henry Fund, Newport Beach Police Department, Attn: Sgt. Andy Goins, P.O. Box 7000, Newport Beach, CA 92658-7000.

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There weren’t enough seats for the 1,400 police officers attending the memorial April 3, 1995, for “the old man” of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department.

Hundreds of officers stood in formation in the foyer as speakers remembered and thanked Deputy Frank V. Trejo. The grandfather and career lawman was 58 when he was shot to death March 29.

Trejo was well-known to graveyard shift workers in the huge area he policed from west of Santa Rosa and Cotati to near Forestville. He had spotted a pickup in the lot of a closed store near Sebastopol and pulled into investigate. Minutes later, Sonoma County’s oldest patrol deputy lay dead from a shotgun blast. Two suspects were later arrested.

“My dad loved his job,” said 24-year-old Nikki Trejo, surveying the auditorium filled with uniformed officers from across the state. “This was where he belonged, among the rest of you.”

Although 2,200 people attended Trejo’s memorial, the farewell had the feeling of a family affair. Ordinary citizens walked to the microphone to say something about the down-to-earth, reliable deputy.

Clerks who worked the graveyard shift in west county stores said they liked the stout and muscular Trejo and felt safer knowing he wasn’t far away.

West county resident Ann Davis thanked Trejo’s family for the deputy’s sacrifice. “To all of you in uniforms, it could have been any of you,” Davis added. “Thank you for protecting us.

A close friend of Trejo, former Deputy Carlos Basurto, was a detective when Trejo, formerly a policeman in Lompoc and Tiburon, became a Sonoma County deputy in 1980. Basurto said he took one look at Trejo and knew he was looking at the department’s new narcotics detective.

At Basurto’s suggestion, Trejo began deep-cover work, buying heroin from dealers and then sending in deputies to bust them.

“Frank was good at buying heroin,” said Basurto. The somber crowd laughed when Basurto added, “He was so good, the dealers gave him a discount.” Basurto ended by beseeching the officers present, “Please be careful.”

Earlier, a motorcade of 240 patrol cars and 60 police motorcycles, led by limousines bearing Trejo’s family, moved slowly from the fairgrounds in central Santa Rosa to the memorial at the Burbank Center. Along the route, some spectators bowed their heads in honor of Frank Trejo. Others saluted.

Trejo was remembered as a fine father and loving grandfather and as the kind of cop who used brains rather than brawn, although he had both.

Former Tiburon policeman Bill Langston, now a sergeant with the Placer County Sheriff’s Department, recalled that in 1978 he was a young cop eager “to go out and kick some butt,” Langston credited Trejo’s patient mentoring with helping him mature into a good cop.

Ron Hutchins, an officer from Trejo’s home town of Lompoc, said Trejo was a master at resolving fights and other problems without getting physical. Hutchins said when he heard Trejo had been killed, “I thought, damn, I lost my role model.”

He was a role model also for son Michael, 22. The younger Trejo struggled to contain his grief as he said his family deeply appreciated the community’s love and support and all the expressions of fondness for his father. “He was a great man,” Michael Trejo said.

Trejo is survived by his wife Barbara; son Michael, Jr.; daughters Debra Radovich, Dominique Trejo and Deanna Trejo; three grandchildren; and mother Carmen Trejo of Lompoc.

Contributions to a trust fund to benefit the family may be mailed to Frank Trejo Family Trust, c/o Exchange Bank, P.O. Box 6005, Santa Rosa, CA 95406.

Tragedy struck Lassen County March 2, 1995, when Deputy Larry D. Griffith was shot and killed while attempting to contact a suspect in a domestic dispute.

Sheriff Ron Jarrell said Griffith, 44, responded with three other officers to a ranch house near Ravendale. The suspect, a reputed survivalist, began shooting as the officers were exiting their two patrol vehicles, and Griffith was fatally injured.

Law enforcement vehicles from throughout California and Nevada arrived for the funeral services March 7. The tribute began when more than 200 patrol cars, motorcycles and fire engines formed a procession from the Lassen County Fairgrounds to the funeral at the Assembly of God Church.

Griffith’s death affected the entire community. “I’ve never seen an outpouring of this magnitude,” said family friend and Los Altos Police Officer Craig Penley. “People pulled together in a way I’ve never seen before.”

Craig Griffith added that he’d “never seen anything even remotely as powerful” as the community response to his brother’s tragic death.

Carolyn Hutchinson, Griffith’s sister, expressed hope that the tragedy would lead to increased officer safety throughout California. She said the family requested and fully supported Susanville Police Officer Todd Daugherty’s plea for positive change during the funeral service.

“It’s not a negative thing,” she said. “We want it to be protective, with the necessary resources provided to improve safety.”

Griffith’s death in the line of duty was the first of a Lassen County sheriff’s deputy in over 25 years.

Deputy Scott Ruppel gave the eulogy, summarizing Griffith’s Army service in Vietnam and entry into law enforcement in the early 1980s as a Plumas County reserve deputy. After three years as a full-time deputy in Plumas County, Griffith joined the Lassen County Sheriff’s Department in 1984.

Ruppel said Griffith was always more concerned about family and friends than himself. “I feel that if he could repeat the day, he would not change the outcome,” Ruppel said, referring to Griffith’s death and the ten-hour standoff which followed. “He would have found it unbearable to lose a fellow officer.”

Many of Griffith’s close friends were members of the Lassen County Country Corvette Club which Griffith founded. Club President Wayne McGaughy recalled that Griffith declined the presidency because many of his nights and weekends were dedicated to his work.

Also a Corvette Club member, Officer Daugherty remembered that he and Griffith were hired in 1984 by their respective departments. “We were both the squeaky wheels,” Daugherty said. “We wreaked the most havoc and wrecked the most patrol cars.”

Daugherty also said Griffith seemed to know he was going to die. In his last month, he requested that he be buried with his badge and designated who he wanted as pallbearers.

Sheriff Jarrell characterized Griffith as an exemplary officer. “He was a dedicated professional with a strong commitment to serving his community both in law enforcement and the military reserve, Jarrell said. “He chose this profession out of a strong desire to help people. He got his share of tough details and he always did a good job.”

Griffith is survived by his wife Lauri of Susanville; sons David Griffith of Fernadina, Florida, and Eric Harrison of Quincy; daughter Krystal Griffith of Susanville, parents Marvin Fogel of Texas and Mary Griffith of Poway, brothers Michael Griffith and Craig Griffith as well as sisters Carolyn O’Mara and Terri Griffith.

A trust fund to benefit his family has been established. Donations may be made to the Larry Griffith Trust Fund, c/o Lassen County Federal Credit Union, P.O. Box 1060, Susanville, CA 96130.