Nearly 2,000 people, including hundreds of officers whose squad cars jammed city streets, gathered at St. Basil’s Church in Vallejo to bid farewell to Oakland Police officer William B. Grijalva, who was gunned down during a confrontation over a pit bull terrier, Dec. 15, 1993.

The officers came from throughout Northern California and from as far away as San Diego to attend the services for the popular 41 -year-old patrolman who was set to retire in November, after completing 20 years on the force.

Grijalva, who lived in Benicia with his wife and two children, was eulogized by both department brass and fellow beat officers as a good man who exemplified the finest traditions of a policeman.

“He was a man’s man and a cop’s cop, Oakland Police Chief Joseph Samuels told the near 1,000 people seated in the church and more than 500 officers standing in formation outside. “He demonstrated it is right and it is moral for you to have a tough mind and a tender heart, Samuels said.

Grijalva, born in San Jose, attended primary and secondary schools there, graduated from Mt. Pleasant High School, and attended San Jose City College and San Jose State University. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard and, prior to joining tile Oakland Police Department, was a reserve deputy sheriff for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department.

Appointed as an Oakland Police Officer on Nov. 15, 1974, he completed the 81st Recruit Academy, finishing second in his class. He served in the Patrol Division, Vice Control Division, and the Walking Detail.

On Jan. 9, 1979, Grijalva was awarded the department’s highest award, the Medal of Valor for entering a burning building, locating an unconscious invalid woman, and carrying her to safety. He was the recipient of many letters from citizens and merchants expressing appreciation for the manner in which he performed his duties.

While assigned to the department’s vice division, Grijalva earned a national reputation as one of the department’s experts in child sex crime cases. He was also a hostage negotiator.

Other officers and a neighbor remembered Grijalva as an avid fisherman, a Trivial Pursuit fanatic, and as a dedicated soccer and Little League coach.

Officers said Grijalva, a patrolman assigned to walk the Diamond District for the last several years, seemed to have a knack for showing up when most needed.

Deputy Chief Robert Nitchelini said it was not surprising that Grijalva was the one who responded to a call off his beat to assist another officer.

“He heard another officer needed help and he went to cover him. That was like him… unselfish, always helping his brother officer out,” Nitchelini said.

A trust fund for officer Grijalva’s family has been established at the Wells Fargo Bank, 2020 Webster St., Oakland 94612. Donations may also be mailed to the Oakland Police Officers Association, 717 Washington St., Oakland 94607.

More than 10,000 people turned out Dec. 7, 1993 to give a fallen police officer the largest hero’s sendoff in Ventura County’s history.

Oxnard Police Detective James Edward O’Brien, 35, was buried with full police honors, including a 21-gun salute by the Los Angeles Police Department’s honor guard.

“That Jim O’Brien gave his life as part of his commitment to public service humbles all of us gathered here today,” said Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt. “He was a person like you and me. He had a family, he had many friends, and he had hopes for the future – all of which were cut short by a mindless act of violence.”

In addition to the 5,000 mourners, another 5,000 people lined streets and freeway bridges along the route of the five-mile-long motorcade that carried O’Brien to his final resting place at Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard.

They were there to celebrate the life of the officer who was shot to death Thursday, Dec. 2, 1993, while pursuing gunman Alan Winterbourne, who had killed three people at the Oxnard employment office.

The Rev. Liam Kidney, who officiated at the funeral Mass, described O’Brien as a “cop’s cop.” “He loved being a cop,” Kidney said. “He loved being where the action was. Being a policeman was his life.”

His widow, Leslie O’Brien, sat stoically through the tributes to her fallen husband. She was flanked by her children, Kathryn Elizabeth, 8, and Sean Patrick, 6.

“His children were the most important,” Kidney said. “He was proud of the children. He also loved his wife, his mother, his brother and his sisters.”

O’Brien’s brother Tom, the football coach at Santa Clara High School, said he had become very close to his brother following the death of their father Thomas, in 1987.

O’Brien was the third officer of the Oxnard Police Department killed in the line of duty since October 1971.

Born July 30, 1958, in Long Beach, O’Brien was a longtime Ventura County resident.

He was awarded the Medal of Valor by the Peace Officers Association of Ventura County in 1991 for saving the life of a resident in La Colonia.

He was a member of the Oxnard Police Officers’ Association, Ventura County Peace Officers’ Association, Peace Officers’ Research Association of California, and California Narcotics’ Officer Association.

O’Brien attended California Lutheran University and was a graduate of Ventura College and Hueneme High School.

The Bank of A. Levy and the Channel Islands National Bank are both accepting money for the Jim E. O’Brien Memorial Trust Fund. The money for the memorial fund will be used to support some of the projects O’Brien worked hard on such as keeping children out of gangs and fighting graffiti.

Another trust fund for O’Brien’s wife and two young children is being administered by the Channel Islands National Bank in Oxnard.

(The following article was written by CHP Inland Division Air Operation Flight Officer Davis Rouse as a tribute to fellow Air Operations Officer Larry Jaramillo and in remembrance of a good friend.)

On June 22, 1993, Officer Larry Jaramillo lost his life in an on-duty traffic collision while returning from court. Without warning, one of our finest was cruelly taken from us. Sadly, he was not the first this year. Once again we mourn for a departed comrade and experience the profound sense of loss we all feel when one of our own is lost.

The faces of his children filled my mind and brought tears to my eyes. I reflected on our friendship, the time we had shared together and the many things we had in common. A unique and special person among an organization of special people was gone forever.

I had the opportunity to work with Larry as both a peer and a supervisor. I admired and respected him for his dedication and sense of duty. He worked hard to get where he was and once there, worked even harder to better himself.

His attitude was always positive, and he was an excellent representative of our air operations unit and the department as a whole. The overwhelming representation of law enforcement agencies and the many civilians who turned out to pay their final respects to Larry was a tribute to his character.

He once performed unassisted CPR for 20 minutes on an accident victim who had little chance of survival under the best of conditions. Additionally, the victim weighed nearly 300 pounds and was trapped inside his truck.

On another occasion, he was solely responsible for saving the lives of two teen-aged boys stranded in the mountains after a severe snow storm. This he did at some risk to his own safety.

Despite his reluctance to accept recognition for his achievements, Larry was honored as the CHP’s Latino Peace Officer of the Year shortly before his death.

Earlier in the year, I had the pleasure of nominating him for the state’s Special Act Award for the aforementioned rescue of two youths. His wife, June, who is also a traffic officer assigned to the Barstow area, accepted the award for Larry at his memorial service.

Larry came from a large and close-knit family. He was the father of three beautiful daughters whom he loved very much. He was a former Marine, having served with an elite recon unit. He took pride in having worn the Marine uniform and I know he was proud to wear the uniform of the California Highway Patrol.

We must now say farewell to our comrade. We shall all mourn him, but for those of us who called him friend and for those who loved him, the pain of our loss is deeper and the sorrow greater.

Our lives have been made richer for having known him. Our fond and cherished memories of him will live on forever in our hearts and minds. Goodbye friend, you will not lie forgotten.

A trust fund has been established for Jaramillo’s family. Please make check to CHP-1199 Foundation, P0. Box 811, Norwalk, CA 90651-0811, in memory of Larry Jaramillo.

It was a poignant story, the kind of tale that reduces scores of hardened police veterans to tears.

Without fail, Sheriff’s Deputy Kent Hintergardt could play gently with his 16-month-old daughter Marissa, whenever he got home from work, recalled his good friend, Deputy Kevin Koehler. But early Sunday morning, May 9, 1993, Hintergardt’s wife, Linda, awoke to hear her daughter joyously giggling for no apparent reason.

Later that morning Linda Hintergardt would learn that her daughter had awakened just moments after her husband had been shot and killed. Through some miracle, Koehler noted, Kent Hintergardt had come home one last time.

More than 2,500 police officers from Southern California converged in Riverside to pay their last respects for the slain sheriff’s deputy who was shot in the head at close range as he stood in the parking lot of a Temecula apartment complex where he was investigating an early-morning domestic dispute.

At the funeral service at Harvest Christian Fellowship on Arlington Avenue, and later during graveside services at Crestlawn Memorial Park, it was clear that the loss of the man who many were calling one of the best deputies in the Sheriff’s Department had hit hard.

“This is the most difficult of duties,” said Sheriff Cois Byrd, as he began a brief eulogy for the deputy who was shot and killed by a man who choked his girlfriend to death and later shot and killed himself.

The death of the former Los Angeles jail deputy assigned to the Temecula Police Department, Byrd said, “is a loss to the entire community of a fine, outstanding young man who had his life in front of him.”

Hintergardt, 33, was survived by his pregnant wife, Linda, who works as a nurse, and their daughter Marissa.

Linda Hintergardt said her husband was a sportsman and athlete. He loved boating and water and snow skiing. He ran and kept in good physical shape. The family enjoyed spending weekends at their mountain cabin.

She said her husband started his law-enforcement career in 1989 as a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, after graduating from the LA County Sheriff’s Academy.

“He always was the guy who helped us look at the bright side of a situation, Deputy Koehler who worked with Hintergardt in Temecula. “He didn’t complain, and the people on the streets didn’t complain about him.”

Hintergardt was also recalled as a doting father who loved his daughter Marissa, as much as life itself.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Doug Shive said he got to know Hintergardt when they both attended the sheriff’s academy in South Whittier.

“The same characteristics he had as a boy, he brought with him as a man,” Shive told those gathered.

Shive concluded his eulogy saying, “The greatest tragedy is not a short life, but an empty life… Kent lived a full life.”

A trust fund has been set up for Hintergardt’s widow and children. Please send contributions to: Linda Hintergardt, North County Bank, 27425 Ynez Road, Temecula, CA 92593.

During a quiet but emotional ceremony, more than 2,000 family members, friends, and law officers honored California Highway Patrol Sgt. John L. Steel who was killed April 23, 1993 in a head-on collision on his way to work in Santa Ana from Lake Forest.

Riding to work in full uniform and helmet, Steel, 47, became the l7lst CHP officer killed in the line of duty the fourth in Orange County. He also was the second Orange County law officer killed in less than two months.

The services for Steel, a 20-year veteran of the CHP, filled the 1,900-seat Calvary Church in Santa Ana to capacity.

“I am told that John would not be comfortable being called a hero,” said Thomas Sayles, who oversees the CHP as State Secretary of Business and Transportation. “But that’s what he was, and that is what we need in these troubled times… John’s untimely death was a stark reminder of the danger our officers face.”

Steel’s funeral service was attended by CHP Commissioner Maury Hannigan, from Sacramento, and a contingent of officers from Houston, where a friend of Steel’s is a patrol officer. The Texas contingent had driven to California with their headlights on in tribute.

In the church, Steel’s wife, Virginia, sat with her two sons, Jake, 17, and Jordan, 13. She selected two songs for the service, “I’ll Leave Something Good Behind,” by Barbara Mandrell, intended as a tribute from her husband to her sons, and “Wind Beneath My Wings,” by Bette Midler, as her tribute to her husband.

Steel, a longtime participant in Police Olympics and softball teams, was remembered by friends as a father figure and mentor a man who could clown around but who also knew just what to say to defuse a tense situation.

“He had the comic timing of a Jack Benny,” said Matt Clark, a longtime friend who recently retired from the CHP. Clark said Steel used humor to relax officers before inspections, or at accident scenes to calm victims.

During Steel’s career he received numerous commendations for his work as a patrol sergeant and received letters of appreciation from area law enforcement agencies and the Secret Service. Steel was the coordinator of protective details assigned to visiting dignitaries such as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

A 1963 graduate of Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego, Steel majored in business law and finance at Mesa College, California State University, San Diego, and tile University of Southern California. He joined the Highway Patrol in July 1972.

“He had enough time on the job to be transferred out to the woods, to the mountains, to the beach, but he liked Orange County,” said Officer Bernard who works at the Newhall station. “The congestion, the traffic. It didn’t bother him.”

“When we think of John, there are tears, and those tears are for us, said CHP station Chief Richard Layne. “And then there’s a smile, and that smile is for John.”

The biggest tribute came from Virginia Steel, who was quoted by Lane from the podium: “No better words could be put on a tombstone than these: He left nothing unsaid. He left nothing undone.

Officers and staff working out of the King City office of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) are mourning the loss of brother officer John N. McVeigh Jr., 38, of King City a 13-year veteran of the CHP.

McVeigh died Saturday, April 17, 1993, on Highway 198, five miles east of San Lucas, while responding to a call of an injury traffic accident. His patrol vehicle was hit broadside by a 1987 Toyota 4×4 pickup after skidding into its path.

The driver of the truck, Amilcar Hernandez, 38, of Salinas was critically injured in the crash. A passenger in the truck, Alejandro Hernendez, 20, also of Salinas, received minor injuries.

According to the autopsy, Officer McVeigh suffered massive internal injuries including a severed aorta. He died instantly.

McVeigh was recently honored as the 1992 Officer of the Year in the King City office. During that year he made more than 2,500 enforcement contacts, most of which were for violations identified as primary reasons why collisions occur.

McVeigh began his career in 1980 after graduating from the CHP academy in Sacramento. He served in Westminster Redwood City and Monterey before joining the King City office at the end of 1991.

“It’s nothing I have ever dreamed of,” said an emotionally spent and physically exhausted Bob Davies, Commander of the CHP’s King City office. “It’s every commander’s worst nightmare. It makes it harder because John McVeigh was truly the cream of the crop.

Close friends for many years and fellow runners, Davies recalled one of his proudest moments – sharing the victory stand at the Police Olympics with Officer McVeigh.

“We were one/two in the steeplechase,” laughed Davies as he fought back tears. “Of course John was first. I never saw his front… always his back.”

Following the funeral, Davies was finally able to relax at home after spending the past two days dealing with the aftermath of the death of a beloved officer and cherished friend.

“It’s the worst 48 hours I have ever spent in my life,” Davies said. “We’re survivors by nature… we’re trained to deal with this……. and it still hurts.”

A native Californian, Officer McVeigh was raised in Daly City, attended St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco and graduated from Santa Clara University where he studied accounting. He was a member of the patrol for 13 years.

McVeigh is survived by his wife Danielle; two stepdaughters, Hallie, 17, and Meagan, 16; stepson Bret Wyatt; parents, John McVeigh, Sr. of Pacifica and Bernadette McVeigh of Daly City; a brother and four sisters.

Memorials are requested to the California Highway Patrol Widows and Orphans Fund, 2030 V Street, Sacramento, CA 95818 or St. Ignatius Athletic Fund, 2001 37th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94116.

A memorial fund to benefit Officer McVeigh’s family has been established. Donations may be made to Bank of Salinas.

Their badges wrapped in black bands of mourning, police officers from throughout the West gathered for a tearful tribute to Officer Howard Ellsworth Dallies Jr. who was gunned down March 9, 1993 during a routine traffic stop.

Dallies, a veteran officer who helped train recruits and was soon to be promoted to sergeant, was remembered as a “fallen hero” in a moving ceremony at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove.

A well-liked officer and father of two, the 36-year-old patrolman was the third Southern California police officer to be slain on duty since Feb. 22.

“I do not feel that Howard is a hero simply because of his untimely death at the hands of a cowardly assassin,” Garden Grove Sgt. George Jaramillo said of his slain colleague. “I feel strongly that Howard is a hero because of the way he lived his life. Howard Dallies typified our department’s motto as he lived his life with courage, courtesy and commitment.”

Dallies’ gun was still strapped in its holster when he was shot at 2:45 a.m. on March 9, apparently while making a traffic stop in a quiet residential neighborhood in Garden Grove. He was the fifth officer from Garden Grove, and the 3lst in Orange County to be killed while on duty since 1912. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest when he was shot.

Dailies is survived by his wife, Mary their two sons Christopher, 7, and Scott, 4, and his father, Howard Dallies Sr. At the funeral, Jaramillo quoted Christopher as saying, “I think my dad was a very special man. He was shot but is not forgotten.”

Dallies began his law enforcement career at age 17 in the U.S. Army’s military police force, then attended the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy. Raised in Garden Grove, he joined that city’s force in 1984, after brief stints as an Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy and a police officer in Placentia. Dallies also has worked for Orange County’s Regional Narcotics Suppression Program and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

During his eight years with Garden Grove, Dallies received 26 citizen commendations and was named a master officer, serving as a mentor for rookies and earning a reputation as a “cop’s cop.”

“He stood out as an exceptional police officer in a department made up of exceptional police officers,” John R. Robertson said at the funeral.

“Howard did have tremendous courage, he had sincere courtesy, he was an officer who could balance the tools of coercion with sympathy and empathy,” added Robertson, a former Garden Grove police chief who now heads the Orange Police Department. “There’s going to be a void because of the tremendous talent Howard Dallies possessed.”

At the funeral, Garden Grove Police Chaplain Steven R. La Fond read a poem sent in by a 13-year-old boy. “He was a hero, not just another man… He was a savior an outstretched hand,” the teenager wrote. “I write for the memory of a man I never knew……. A man who, through death, influenced me too.”

Referring to memorials for slain police officers in Sacramento and Washington, Knee said: “Let us pray, let us set as a goal that Howard Dallies’ name is the last one to be added to those memorials.”

The 125-officer Compton Police Department grieved for two fellow officers who were gunned down following a vehicle stop on Feb. 22, 1993. Reserve Officer James Wayne Mac Donald, 24, and Officer Kevin Michael Burrell, 29, were the first officers in the department to die in the line of duty.

At some time between 11 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., the officers were answering an unrelated disturbance call when they spotted a “possible traffic violation of suspicious circumstances,” and decided to make a traffic stop on a customized red Chevrolet pick-up truck traveling westbound on Rosecrans Avenue from Wilmington Avenue. The pick-up truck was pulled over and stopped on Rosecrans Avenue just east of Dwight Avenue.

Based on witness statements after the event, Officers Burrell and Mac Donald approached the red truck and the suspect exited the driver’s door. Reportedly, both officers were attempting to physically restrain the suspect, each officer was attempting to control the suspect’s arms by placing them behind his back. During the struggle the suspect was able to arm himself from his person with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and began shooting at both officers.

Upon falling to the ground, officers still received gunfire from the suspect. The suspect re-entered the truck and fled the scene.

The Police Department received a number of telephone calls from citizens who reported hearing shots being fired and/or observing two uniformed officers “down” in the street in the area of Rosecrans and Dwight Avenues. Compton patrol officers quickly arrived on the scene and observed both officers suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to their heads and bodies laying motionless in the street near the front of their patrol car, their service weapons were still holstered and secured and their backup weapons still in their pockets.

The information was broadcast over the radio and shortly dozens of patrol units from various agencies converged on the location. An intensive manhunt for the suspect was conducted throughout the night and days following. The suspect a member of a notorious Los Angeles gang known as “Bounty Hunters”, was eventually identified.

Through news media coverage he became aware that he was wanted by the Compton Police in connection with the murders of Officers Burrell and Mac Donald, he arranged with the news media to surrender himself to a television reporter, who subsequently surrendered the suspect to authorities.

The suspect who was on parole was subsequently tried and convicted of the murders, he received the death penalty and is presently awaiting his appeal.

Kevin Burrell was a 6-foot-6-inch gentle giant known for his basketball prowess and easy manner as a policeman, friends and fellow officers said.

Lt. Gary Anderson groomed Burrell in both passions. Anderson’s voice broke several times as he talked about his friend. “I’ve known him since he was a kid around here – when he was 15 and an Explorer Scout.”

Burrell would fill out reports at the counter for eight hours and then work another eight hours accompanying Anderson as he worked patrol on the graveyard shift.

When Burrell became an officer in 1988, Anderson coached him on the Compton P.D. basketball team that competed in the Police Olympics.

Burrell, the fifth of seven children, was a starting center for the Compton High School basketball team in 1981, when the team finished second in the Moore League.

He went on to California State University/Dominguez Hills, where he was a captain of the basketball team and a student escort for the campus police.

“I watched him grow up professionally,” said Michael Lordanich, police chief at CSUDH. “He was as kind a person as you would want to meet. He was a gentle giant.”

Burrell attended CSUDH from 1981 through 1985, studying public administration and criminal justice. He then went to work for the Compton P.D. as a civilian for several years before becoming a sworn officer.

As a police officer “he always had time to chit-chat with you. It made you feel like he was your own son or father” said Gladys Russell, a Compton resident since 1956.

“He wasn’t the kind to throw you up against a car. He would have long talks with young people in trouble,” she said.

The day before he died, Burrell, who was single, talked with a high school chum about sports, his 3-year-old son, Kevin Jr., and the city where he grew up and still lived. “He knew everybody. He felt safe,” said Greg Woods.

Feb. 23rd would’ve been the last shift for Compton Reserve Officer James Mac Donald. Officer Mac Donald had only about 15 minutes left on his last shift the night he was shot. The athletic 24-year-old was on his way to San Jose, where he was to enter the San Jose P.D. Academy.

“It’s sad. I sit back and think, could we have started the academy class a month early?” said San Jose Police Sgt. Gary Bertelson, who heads up recruitment for the department. Mac Donald was one of 60 candidates selected out of 240 applicants for the l,250-officer department.

Mac Donald grew up in Santa Rosa and attended Piner High School, a private school in that city. In 1987, when he was a senior, MacDonald was the quarterback and led the football team to a 9-1 season.

Mac Donald, who was single, continued to play sports, mostly adult league basketball and softball.

He briefly attended California State University Sacramento, before coming to California State University Long Beach, where he was close to graduating with a degree in speech communications and criminal justice.

Mac Donald was sitting in a criminal justice class at CSULB when he was recruited as a reserve for the Compton P.D., said Lt. Flores. That was June 1, 1991.

Reserve officers go through training and then volunteer for 16 hours per month and are paid an hourly wage for additional hours worked.

“‘Jimmy Mac’ (as Mac Donald was known) was a very fine reserve officer. He worked a lot and learned quickly,” said Sgt. Michael Markey, who is president of the Compton Police Officers Association.

“His department thought very highly of him,” Bertelson said. “He was only a reserve, but he was putting in a full weeks work, which is above and beyond the requirement.

“He was so looking forward to leaving and starting his new job,” said police Officer Mark Lobel, a close friend of Mac Donald’s.

At the site of the killing, an impromptu memorial to the slain officers was established on a small patch of grass beside the curb. Also scattered about Compton are copies of a poem written by a local bus driver.

It reads in part: “You can never replace Officers Mac Donald and Burrell. God knows the dangers of doing what’s right.”

Mac Donald was a star athletic in high school and had won numerous awards for his athletic ability. He enjoyed all sports. Each year in Mac Donald’s hometown of Santa Rosa, Ca. The Jimmy Mac Donald Memorial Softball Tournament is held to raise money for a scholarship fund set up by three of Mac Donald’s friends. The Jimmy MacDonald Peace Officer Scholarship has been established at the Exchange Bank’s Coddingtown branch, 1300 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa 95401. The scholarship is awarded to someone attending the police academy.

You never get over the loss of a child, but knowing that our sons name is on the wall in Sacramento, Washington, D.C., The Miami Police Hall of Fame, and the wall in Whittier, California, means to us, he will never be forgotten, said his parents.

Compton Police Officers Association has created a trust fund to help provide for the families of the two slain officers.

Donations can be sent to CPOA, Kevin Burrell/James Mac Donald Memorial Fund, P0. Box 5368, Compton 90224.

(Part of this account was written and submitted to the CPOM online by Officer Mac Donald’s mother.)

The 125-officer Compton Police Department grieved for two fellow officers who were gunned down following a vehicle stop on Feb. 22, 1993. Reserve Officer James Wayne Mac Donald, 24, and Officer Kevin Michael Burrell, 29, were the first officers in the department to die in the line of duty.

At some time between 11 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., the officers were answering an unrelated disturbance call when they spotted a “possible traffic violation of suspicious circumstances,” and decided to make a traffic stop on a customized red Chevrolet pick-up truck traveling westbound on Rosecrans Avenue from Wilmington Avenue. The pick-up truck was pulled over and stopped on Rosecrans Avenue just east of Dwight Avenue.

Based on witness statements after the event, Officers Burrell and Mac Donald approached the red truck and the suspect exited the driver’s door. Reportedly, both officers were attempting to physically restrain the suspect, each officer was attempting to control the suspect’s arms by placing them behind his back. During the struggle the suspect was able to arm himself from his person with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and began shooting at both officers.

Upon falling to the ground, officers still received gunfire from the suspect. The suspect re-entered the truck and fled the scene.

The Police Department received a number of telephone calls from citizens who reported hearing shots being fired and/or observing two uniformed officers “down” in the street in the area of Rosecrans and Dwight Avenues. Compton patrol officers quickly arrived on the scene and observed both officers suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to their heads and bodies laying motionless in the street near the front of their patrol car, their service weapons were still holstered and secured and their backup weapons still in their pockets.

The information was broadcast over the radio and shortly dozens of patrol units from various agencies converged on the location. An intensive manhunt for the suspect was conducted throughout the night and days following. The suspect a member of a notorious Los Angeles gang known as “Bounty Hunters”, was eventually identified.

Through news media coverage he became aware that he was wanted by the Compton Police in connection with the murders of Officers Burrell and Mac Donald, he arranged with the news media to surrender himself to a television reporter, who subsequently surrendered the suspect to authorities.

The suspect who was on parole was subsequently tried and convicted of the murders, he received the death penalty and is presently awaiting his appeal.

Kevin Burrell was a 6-foot-6-inch gentle giant known for his basketball prowess and easy manner as a policeman, friends and fellow officers said.

Lt. Gary Anderson groomed Burrell in both passions. Anderson’s voice broke several times as he talked about his friend. “I’ve known him since he was a kid around here – when he was 15 and an Explorer Scout.”

Burrell would fill out reports at the counter for eight hours and then work another eight hours accompanying Anderson as he worked patrol on the graveyard shift.

When Burrell became an officer in 1988, Anderson coached him on the Compton P.D. basketball team that competed in the Police Olympics.

Burrell, the fifth of seven children, was a starting center for the Compton High School basketball team in 1981, when the team finished second in the Moore League.

He went on to California State University/Dominguez Hills, where he was a captain of the basketball team and a student escort for the campus police.

“I watched him grow up professionally,” said Michael Lordanich, police chief at CSUDH. “He was as kind a person as you would want to meet. He was a gentle giant.”

Burrell attended CSUDH from 1981 through 1985, studying public administration and criminal justice. He then went to work for the Compton P.D. as a civilian for several years before becoming a sworn officer.

As a police officer “he always had time to chit-chat with you. It made you feel like he was your own son or father” said Gladys Russell, a Compton resident since 1956.

“He wasn’t the kind to throw you up against a car. He would have long talks with young people in trouble,” she said.

The day before he died, Burrell, who was single, talked with a high school chum about sports, his 3-year-old son, Kevin Jr., and the city where he grew up and still lived. “He knew everybody. He felt safe,” said Greg Woods.

Feb. 23rd would’ve been the last shift for Compton Reserve Officer James Mac Donald. Officer Mac Donald had only about 15 minutes left on his last shift the night he was shot. The athletic 24-year-old was on his way to San Jose, where he was to enter the San Jose P.D. Academy.

“It’s sad. I sit back and think, could we have started the academy class a month early?” said San Jose Police Sgt. Gary Bertelson, who heads up recruitment for the department. Mac Donald was one of 60 candidates selected out of 240 applicants for the l,250-officer department.

Mac Donald grew up in Santa Rosa and attended Piner High School, a private school in that city. In 1987, when he was a senior, MacDonald was the quarterback and led the football team to a 9-1 season.

Mac Donald, who was single, continued to play sports, mostly adult league basketball and softball.

He briefly attended California State University Sacramento, before coming to California State University Long Beach, where he was close to graduating with a degree in speech communications and criminal justice.

Mac Donald was sitting in a criminal justice class at CSULB when he was recruited as a reserve for the Compton P.D., said Lt. Flores. That was June 1, 1991.

Reserve officers go through training and then volunteer for 16 hours per month and are paid an hourly wage for additional hours worked.

“‘Jimmy Mac’ (as Mac Donald was known) was a very fine reserve officer. He worked a lot and learned quickly,” said Sgt. Michael Markey, who is president of the Compton Police Officers Association.

“His department thought very highly of him,” Bertelson said. “He was only a reserve, but he was putting in a full weeks work, which is above and beyond the requirement.

“He was so looking forward to leaving and starting his new job,” said police Officer Mark Lobel, a close friend of Mac Donald’s.

At the site of the killing, an impromptu memorial to the slain officers was established on a small patch of grass beside the curb. Also scattered about Compton are copies of a poem written by a local bus driver.

It reads in part: “You can never replace Officers Mac Donald and Burrell. God knows the dangers of doing what’s right.”

Mac Donald was a star athletic in high school and had won numerous awards for his athletic ability. He enjoyed all sports. Each year in Mac Donald’s hometown of Santa Rosa, Ca. The Jimmy Mac Donald Memorial Softball Tournament is held to raise money for a scholarship fund set up by three of Mac Donald’s friends. The Jimmy MacDonald Peace Officer Scholarship has been established at the Exchange Bank’s Coddingtown branch, 1300 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa 95401. The scholarship is awarded to someone attending the police academy.

You never get over the loss of a child, but knowing that our sons name is on the wall in Sacramento, Washington, D.C., The Miami Police Hall of Fame, and the wall in Whittier, California, means to us, he will never be forgotten, said his parents.

Compton Police Officers Association has created a trust fund to help provide for the families of the two slain officers.

Donations can be sent to CPOA, Kevin Burrell/James Mac Donald Memorial Fund, P0. Box 5368, Compton 90224.

(Part of this account was written and submitted to the CPOM online by Officer Mac Donald’s mother.)

“Working the night shift in tough South Central Los Angeles, former Saginaw Township resident Edward E. Reed Jr. never complained of his duties, colleagues say.

“This guy followed everything I told him to do,” said Sgt. William J. Thomson of the Metropolitan Transit Authority Police Department.

“This kid just loved being a cop, loved doing his job.”

Transit Police Officer Reed was fatally injured and fellow officer Eric Waterman was seriously injured in an on-duty early morning traffic accident involving an alleged drunk driver on Sunday, Feb. 21, 1993.

Reed was killed when a car ran a red light, broadsiding the patrol car and causing it to slam into a pole. The man abandoned his car, then fled the scene before being apprehended at his residence after an intensive search was conducted with the help of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The suspect pled guilty to manslaughter charges in Dept. 112 of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County on March 22, 1993. He was sentenced to seven years in state prison.

Reed was the first officer killed in the line of duty in the 14-year history of the Transit Authority police force, which is separate from tile Los Angeles Police Department.

The injured officer Waterman, 25, a member of the force since May 1990, was admitted to USC Medical Center for treatment of a fractured vertebrae.

Reed, assigned to early morning patrol, was an avid runner who served in the U.S. Army as a MP. He was born in New Jersey and lived in Washington State before joining tile Transit Police in December 1991. He was single, but had recently announced his engagement to Jeanette Starr and planned to be married Sept. 10.

“We all felt good when you called for a back-up. You knew he (Reed) was on his way,” said Ofc. Sheryl Peterson who had worked with Reed on the same watch.

“He was the type of cop you’d want on your squad,” said Sgt. Mo Angel, adding that “he (Reed) never complained, he just went out and did his job. You could count on him.”

Reed will be missed and remembered by his fellow Transit police officers for his contribution and dedication to the department.

He is survived by his parents, Ed and Betty Reed, of Puyallup, WA, sisters Alice and Kathy, and fiancee, Jeanette Starr.

Donations can be made in Ofc. Reed’s name to the California Peace Officers’ Memorial Fund, 1911 F Street, Sacramento, CA 95814.