More than 1,800 fellow law enforcement officers from San Diego and around the nation came to hear a fallen colleague eulogized as a caring police officer whose boyish looks belied his determination and dedication to his job.

San Diego Police Officer Ronald Wayne Davis, 24, also was a devoted family man and friend, the mourners at First United Methodist Church in Mission Valley were told.

“I remember looking at him, and I looked at this boyish face, and I said, ‘Nobody checked his ID. You’ve got to be 21 to be a cop, because he looked so young,” said Davis’ sergeant at the Police Academy, Frank Bucheit, recalling his first meeting with Davis.

“Well, I’ll tell you folks, he may have looked young and boyish, but, man, what a person he was.” “Ron Davis was a great spouse. Ron Davis was a great father. Ron Davis was a great friend. And he was a good cop,” Bucheit told the more than 2,000 mourners, including Davis’ widow, Wendy, and his sons, Matt and Luke.

The funeral service led Police Chief Bob Burgreen to question the need for guns in American society. Davis, the youngest of three sons of an Oregon family, was shot to death Sep. 17, 1991, while responding to a domestic dispute in Southeast San Diego.

Officer Davis and his partner observed a subject fitting the description of the suspect of the domestic violence incident in a vehicle in the parking lot of the residence. Officer Davis exited his vehicle in an attempt to contact the subject. The subject exited his vehicle and aimed a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun at officer Davis from over the top of his vehicle. The subject fired at least five shots at Officer Davis, fatally wounding him in his upper torso.

Officer Davis’ partner returned the suspect’s fire; however, the suspect fled on foot. He remained at large for several hours before being found hiding behind a vehicle in the vicinity of the crime scene. Upon being discovered, the suspect fired one round to his head, committing suicide.

The gunman, Arnaldo Devilla Castillo, 30, a former hospital housekeeping aide, killed himself after an 11-hour manhunt at the apartment complex where the shooting took place.

In his eulogy, Bucheit said Davis “was a helper to us all, and he was a competitor. He wanted to win at all costs.” “He cared. He genuinely cared about the people that he worked with, and he cared about the people that he served in the community,” Bucheit said.

Davis has been praised by both fellow officers and residents for his role in cleaning up an apartment complex under a long-established police program called “problem-oriented policing.” He was slain at the same complex.

In an interview after the funeral, Wendy Davis said her husband and childhood sweetheart, loved his job.” “He was an officer. He was there for the people, and I think they knew that,” she told a reporter.

Also after the service, Chief Burgreen said Ron Davis “didn’t have a chance” in the incident. “There are some times when you never have a chance, and this is such a case,” the police chief said. “He stepped out of that car, and he’s not even out, and he gets shot by a man that he didn’t even know was armed.”

Burgreen went on to warn that “we have to get a handle on the guns” in the city. “I just have a generally bad feeling about the proliferation of guns, and the fact that almost anyone can get a gun at any time,” Burgreen said. “Not only can they, they are, and they are using them on innocent people. And police officers are just trying to do their jobs, and it makes me sick.

“As a society, we have to start asking ourselves, ‘What are we doing with all those guns out there, and do we really need them?”‘

Davis was born in Oregon and attended schools there. He later joined the Marines, went through the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, and was stationed at Camp Pendleton.

He was married and had two sons, one 4 and the other 18 months.

Davis graduated from the police academy in April 1990 and was presented the Hartless Spirit Award at the ceremony. Created by Shawn Dee Hartless, the award is based on four criteria, according to academy officials: leadership, inspiration, commitment, and “the unselfish desire to help others.” The winner receives an engraved flashlight.

Davis’ death ended a string of almost four years in which no San Diego police officer was killed in the line of duty. In the 1980s, when seven officers died.

The frame around his police motorcycle license plate read, “One more ticket and I get the microwave.”

Billy Jack will never get his microwave, but in three years on the Carlsbad Police Department, he won hundreds of friends from the barrio to City Hall.

Nearly 1,200 people, including more than 600 uniformed officers, gathered at Carlsbad Community Church to say farewell to William “Billy” Robert Jack.

The 30-year-old traffic officer, known to his colleagues as Billy Jack and “Billy the Kid,” died Sept. 1, 1991, of head injuries after being thrown from his motorcycle while on duty. He had been directing traffic after a labor Day weekend concert when he lost control of his motorcycle, hit a center divider, and crashed.

The joke on his license plate was typical of Jack’s sense of humor, friends said, but hardly reflected his serious dedication to his job.

“He had the zeal of a teenager,” said his supervisor, Sgt. Don Metcalf. “He was always exuberant – he could drive you crazy. He never had a bad day.”

Police Chief Bob Vales didn’t sanction the microwave joke when he discovered it a few months ago, but he decided to risk offending citizens and let Jack keep it. “I’m glad I did,” Vales said during the funeral service. “When I had the Billy Jacks of the world working for me, my job was a lot easier.”

Kids loved Jack, Vales said, and Jack loved playing the part of crime-fighting dog McGruff, running a bicycle safety class, and taking time to meet children around the city.

Frank Sorino, coach of a fledgling community boxing team for underprivileged youths whom Jack worked with, attended the funeral with several teens, saying, “It’s a loss to us, too.”

Also at the services were Mayor Bud Lewis, other city officials, and Escondido Police Chief Vincent Jimno, former chief in Carlsbad.

Jack, who lived in Oceanside, joined the department in July 1988 after two years with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. He was engaged to marry Tina Cunniff of Oceanside.

His father, Kenneth, of Escondido, and two younger brothers, Curtis and Douglas, said William had wanted to be a police officer since he was a child.

“When we played war, he was always the Green Beret, the good guy,” remembered Douglas Jack. “He was destined to be a police officer – what else could you do when you are strong, silent, and constant?”

Their father, after telling the congregation of his pride in Jack’s accomplishments, patted his son’s flag-draped coffin in a parting caress.

Moments later, six pallbearers carried the coffin through a double row of uniformed Carlsbad officers to a waiting hearse as hundreds of other officers stood in the street, saluting.

Enroute to Eternal Hills Cemetery in Oceanside for Jack’s burial, a phalanx of nearly 100 motorcycle officers led a procession of nearly 100 more patrol cars from nearly every city in the county, plus Laguna Niguel, Atascadero, San Clemente, and Laguna Beach. The Border Patrol, California Highway Patrol, county marshals, State Park personnel, lifeguards, and the Carlsbad Fire Department also were represented.

Jack was born in San Jose on Feb. 28, 1961 and graduated from high school in Falmouth, Mass in 1979.

He worked for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department before joining the department in Carlsbad, where he was assigned to its traffic division in April.

Jack is survived by his mother, Annine Jack, of Oceanside; father, Kenneth Jack, of Escondido; brothers Curtis Jack of Oceanside and Douglas Jack, of Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; and grandparents Mr. and Mrs. James H. Jack of Southbury, Conn.

Charles Randy Champe and Gary A. Howe, veteran Los Angeles police officers who fought crime from the cockpit of a helicopter, were eulogized June 20 as heroes for keeping their aircraft from striking a day-care center and an elementary school as it plunged from the sky.

The two police officers were killed June 13, 1991, in a helicopter crash apparently caused when the helicopter’s engine failed on a routine patrol. More than 2,000 law enforcement officers from throughout Southern California converged on the Hollywood Hills to honor them.

“To our fellow officers who have departed, we can never say thank you, but we can remember. And we will,” said Deputy Chief Mark A. Krocker.

More than 30 helicopters saluted the fallen officers with a 10-minute flyover as part of the smoggy morning ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery. The memorial service opened with a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace” and ended 90 minutes later with the somber blasts of “Taps” from a gleaming trumpet.

Champe, 46, and Howe, 41, were remembered as brave and dedicated members of the department’s Air Support Division. Krocker – and later Police Chief Daryl F Gates – expressed concern that the officers’ “ultimate sacrifice” had gone unappreciated because of widespread civic criticism of the Police Department.

In remarks to reporters after the service, a solemn Gates agreed. “I am not sure the people really recognize the contributions that officers like these two make to the peace, safety, and good order of this city,” said Gates. “It makes all of these other issues pale into total insignificance.”

Police and military honor guards paid tribute to the two officers with a 21-gun salute, followed by the ceremonial folding of the American flags that had been draped over the caskets. Gates and Capt. Robert Woods, commanding officer of the Air Support Division, presented the flags to Sue Champe, and Lynette Howe the widows.

Champe, a 17-year veteran and the helicopter’s observer, was remembered by two Marines who had served with him in Vietnam. Bill Peters described his decorated war buddy as a quiet man who over the years “opened like a flower.”

Howe, a 20-year police veteran and pilot of the helicopter, was honored as a dedicated police officer and a devoted father and husband. In addition to his wife, Howe leaves three children, Stefani, 14, Robert, 10, and Brent, 8.

In memory of the two officers, Police Department officials said the unit designation “Air 12,” which had been assigned to Champe and Howe, will no longer be used by the department.

“We will never again hear from Air 12,” Officer Frank Provenzano, a former partner of Champe, told mourners. “Air 12, clear,” said Officer Bill Stough.

Charles Randy Champe and Gary A. Howe, veteran Los Angeles police officers who fought crime from the cockpit of a helicopter, were eulogized June 20 as heroes for keeping their aircraft from striking a day-care center and an elementary school as it plunged from the sky.

The two police officers were killed June 13, 1991, in a helicopter crash apparently caused when the helicopter’s engine failed on a routine patrol. More than 2,000 law enforcement officers from throughout Southern California converged on the Hollywood Hills to honor them.

“To our fellow officers who have departed, we can never say thank you, but we can remember. And we will,” said Deputy Chief Mark A. Krocker.

More than 30 helicopters saluted the fallen officers with a 10-minute flyover as part of the smoggy morning ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery. The memorial service opened with a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace” and ended 90 minutes later with the somber blasts of “Taps” from a gleaming trumpet.

Champe, 46, and Howe, 41, were remembered as brave and dedicated members of the department’s Air Support Division. Krocker – and later Police Chief Daryl F Gates – expressed concern that the officers’ “ultimate sacrifice” had gone unappreciated because of widespread civic criticism of the Police Department.

In remarks to reporters after the service, a solemn Gates agreed. “I am not sure the people really recognize the contributions that officers like these two make to the peace, safety, and good order of this city,” said Gates. “It makes all of these other issues pale into total insignificance.”

Police and military honor guards paid tribute to the two officers with a 21-gun salute, followed by the ceremonial folding of the American flags that had been draped over the caskets. Gates and Capt. Robert Woods, commanding officer of the Air Support Division, presented the flags to Sue Champe, and Lynette Howe the widows.

Champe, a 17-year veteran and the helicopter’s observer, was remembered by two Marines who had served with him in Vietnam. Bill Peters described his decorated war buddy as a quiet man who over the years “opened like a flower.”

Howe, a 20-year police veteran and pilot of the helicopter, was honored as a dedicated police officer and a devoted father and husband. In addition to his wife, Howe leaves three children, Stefani, 14, Robert, 10, and Brent, 8.

In memory of the two officers, Police Department officials said the unit designation “Air 12,” which had been assigned to Champe and Howe, will no longer be used by the department.

“We will never again hear from Air 12,” Officer Frank Provenzano, a former partner of Champe, told mourners. “Air 12, clear,” said Officer Bill Stough.

Sacramento Police Officer Michael David Gartrell loved the moment when he could turn on the overhead lights and do what he was paid to do: catch the bad guy.

But Gartrell, who was killed during a pursuit on April 25, 1991, was more than a cop who loved the chase. He was eulogized as a sensitive, funny, and hard-working person.

“He loved his job, the department, the chase,” said fellow Officer Steve Kiehn. “No matter what, he felt he was going to catch that guy. But what he loved more was his family,” he said.

For more than an hour, 450 police and 200 family and friends took time to remember Gartrell.

He was remembered as a diligent officer, a teller of corny jokes, a rider of Harley’s. and a sentimentalist who never forgot birthdays.

Gartrell, 37, died instantly when his patrol car smashed into a concrete abutment during a pursuit of a suspected drunk driver.

The 20-year-old driver of the fleeing car was arrested and charged with murder, felony drunk driving, evading arrest, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Gartrell apparently attempted to pull the driver over in a routine traffic stop as the suspect drove out of an apartment complex without his headlights on. Instead the driver sped away. “From the time he started the pursuit and put out the call, we’re only talking seconds. Probably within a minute, he was in the collision,” CHP spokesman Rick Sullivan said. Gartrell’s pursuit covered less than a mile.

Two responding Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department units took over. One stopped at the accident scene, and the other kept after the suspect, who authorities say took a dizzying spin up and down several nearby streets.

The chase ended when the driver lost control of his car and smashed into a pole. The pursuing deputy then rammed his patrol car into the Cutlass to prevent the driver from fleeing, he said.

In a scene that has become familiar at the funerals for officers who die in the line of duty, there was a sea of blue and green. Officers from a dozen jurisdictions filed by his casket.

But before they paid their last respects, buddies from his department spoke about the likable nature of Gartrell, who was an officer in Hawaii before moving to Sacramento.

Although he had the opportunity to leave the graveyard shift, he preferred to stay. Being home during the day allowed him to help his stepdaughter Dana Austin with school projects. He also wanted Sundays off to ride motorcycles with his wife, Bethany. “He was thrilled to have a wife that rode a Harley,” said Kiehn.

Kiehn said that It was in Gartrell’s nature to give, even though at times “he presented this rough-and-tough image of a macho cop.”

Sacramento Police Officer Steve Reese said Gartrell did not shun difficult or dangerous work. “On that morning, he could have let that car go,” Reese told the crowd, which included Mayor Anne Rudin and Councilman Joe Serna. “He could have closed his eyes. But he was not like that. He was a professional.”

Sgt. Larry Chavez recalled that Gartrell worked for him when he first came to Sacramento: “He was not only a hard-working officer, he had a great sense of humor. Very reliable and absolutely trustworthy.”

Chavez said that Gartrell was especially good at calming down domestic quarrels and neighborhood fights. “He dealt with conflict really well. He helped iron things out.”

Gartrell had been employed by the Sacramento Police Department since Oct. 9, 1985, when he was hired as a reserve officer. He was appointed as a community service officer on Sept. 12, 1987, and was promoted to police officer on April 16, 1988.

An El Dorado County Sheriff’s Deputy was killed February 26, 1991.  He was responding to a call for service when his patrol vehicle failed to negotiate a curve and crashed into a tree near Diamond Springs in Northern California.

Deputy Michael Cole, age 33, was pronounced dead at the scene. Lieutenant James Roloff, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department, said a citizen passing the crash site called 911 to report the accident.

Deputy Cole Joined the Sheriff’s Department on August 4, 1990, after working for the Oxnard Police Department for 10 years.

“He loved the area… We both felt it was a great place to raise our kids,” said fellow Deputy Tony Campagna.

“He was a real nice guy, a great big guy too,” added Lt. Roloff. “He wasn’t with us long. He was always real up, and friendly. That is rare in this type of work.”

Born April 16, 1957 at Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, NV, he graduated from Hueneme High School. Cole began his law enforcement career as a cadet, explorer, and was a reserve officer with the Oxnard Police Department for two years, donating more than 1,200 hours of his own time. He was appointed a regular officer in May 1980.  In 1989, Cole was nominated for the Oxnard Officer of the Year award, sponsored by the South Oxnard Kiwanis Club, for outstanding service to the Police Department and the community. He was a member of the Santa Clara Catholic Church, active in the parish and elementary school.

He was also active in Easter Seals of Ventura County. Cole was a member of PORAC, Oxnard POA, Ventura Co. POA, and El Dorado Co. DSA.

Deputy Cole is survived by his wife, Lori; three sons, Robert, 9, Gregory, 5, and Christopher. 3, at the family home in Pollock Pines; and a brother, Joseph of Santa Barbara.

Tina Kerbrat, the first woman Los Angeles police officer killed in the line of duty, was buried following a poignant funeral in which her children presented some of their favorite toys as a final gift to their mother.

As their father fought to constrain his grief, 3-year-old Nicole and 6-year-old Craig offered a baby doll and a “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle” as part of the gifting tradition of the Catholic Mass.

About 3,500 mourners, mostly uniformed officers, jammed St. John Baptist de la Salle Church in Granada Hills and overflowed outside to say goodbye to their fallen comrade, who was shot Monday, Feb. 11, 1991, while on patrol duty.

Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony presided over the service, offering words of comfort for Kerbrat’s husband and children and praise for the police officers who face a “tremendous level of violence” on the city’s streets each day.

“It is very deep sadness we all feel in our hearts today,” Mahony said. “It isn’t Just one family minus a wife and a mother, but all of us who feel the pain of her loss.”

Looking out at the hundreds of police officers gathered for the ceremony, Mahony added: “As you patrol the killing streets of Los Angeles, all of us owe you incredible gratitude…”

“We, as a community, have not done what is necessary to make our streets, houses, neighbors, friends, and children safe,” he said. “We have failed all of you. Until all of our citizens are filled with deep enough resolve… it is unfair for us to expect you to find the mysterious solution to these problems.”

“We must walk with our heads lowered in shame,” Mahony said.

Kerbrat’s husband Tim, a Los Angeles city fire inspector, clutched his daughter on his lap during the ceremony, while Craig sat on the lap of a fellow firefighter.

Kerbrat, 34, a rookie officer assigned to the North Hollywood Division, was shot in the head as she and her partner made a routine stop in Sun Valley to question two men suspected of drinking in public.

Kerbrat’s partner, Officer Earl Valladares, killed the gunman, 32-year-old Jose Amaya, whom police described as an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.

Officer Kerbrat was the second Los Angeles Police Department officer in four months to be gunned down by an alien marked for deportation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“Tina treasured her family,” said police Chaplain Simon Garcia, who delivered the eulogy. “She shared her love, her hopes, her dreams with her husband, and she was hopelessly devoted to her children.” Tina is also survived by her mother, Beverly Zapata, grandfather, Frank Barrett, brothers, Daniel Zapata, John Zapata, Frank Zapata, and sisters, Elaine Ohara and Monique Aston.

The Rev. Christian Van Liefde, a city fire Department chaplain who married the Kerbrat’s and baptized their two children, remembered the slain officer as a woman of deep love, faith, and strength.

“In many a locker room and police station, we have silently wept many tears,” Van Liefde said. “She touched so many lives in the parish and in her love for neighbors and friends.”

Mourners stood stone-faced as law enforcement officers saluted the casket, which was carried to the hearse by six white-gloved police pallbearers. Mayor Tom Bradley and City Council members attended the funeral.

After the funeral Mass, 185 police-driven motorcycles and scores of patrol cars wound their way to San Fernando Mission Cemetery.

At the cemetery, three mounted policemen and a riderless horse – symbolizing the fallen police officer – led the procession to the grave site.

A bagpiper played “Amazing Grace,” and four police helicopters flew overhead. Later, officers honored their slain colleague with a 21-gun salute and a mournful playing of “Taps.”

More than 700 law enforcement officers from throughout California gathered in Camarillo to pay tribute to a 34-year-old Ventura County CHP officer who was killed Nov. 15, 1990 when a car struck his motorcycle.

James Christopher O’Connor was remembered by friends and fellow officers at his funeral services as a friendly man with a dry wit and a calm manner. The six-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol often helped officers with less experience, said Sgt. Dane Hayward, O’Connor’s good friend and his supervising officer.

O’Connor also assisted motorists in changing tires and doggedly pursued accident investigations. But O’Connor was known most for his motorcycle prowess, Hayward said in his eulogy. “There was a standing line that he might not be able to get out of the parking lot in a car without hitting something, but put him on a cycle, and he could get across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope,” Hayward said. It was that grace on the motorcycle that made his death so ironic, Hayward said.

O’Connor died as he and three fellow officers were returning from a motorcycle training session in Santa Maria, CHP officials said. “A few minutes later, his ride was over,” Hayward said. O’Connor was riding in the left rear position of a box formation with the other officers on California 154 outside Santa Ynez when a car veered into the path of the motorcyclists, officials said.

Three officers managed to swerve, but O’Connor was struck head-on and thrown 60 feet, his helmet knocked loose by the impact, the CHP said. He was dead on arrival at Santa Ynez Valley Hospital.

The driver of the car, Ella Harrison, 78, of Solvang, and her husband, Frederick, 79, suffered minor injuries. Mrs. Harrison was not cited in the incident.

O’Connor joined the CHP in late 1982 and was assigned to western San Fernando Valley. He worked there with his wife, Carla, also a CHP officer, until he was transferred to Ventura County in August, 1989.

Carla O’Connor and her three children Evelyn Bittner, 10, Elaine Bittner, 11, and Elizabeth Bittner, 15, were joined by about 100 friends and relatives at the St. Mary Magdalen Church for the funeral services.

O’Connor is the fourth CHP officer in Ventura County to be killed in the line of duty, CHP Officer Jim Utter said.