The community of Rancho Cordova had experienced several armed robberies in early January. On January 20th, a fast food restaurant on Folsom Boulevard had been robbed by a gun toting suspect.

On January 21st, Sergeant Rick Deffner, 36, was commanding the elite Special Enforcement, Gold Team in an all day search in an attempt to locate the violent robbery suspect. At approximately 2:15 p.m., officers spotted the suspects car and gave chase.

The suspect crashed his car into a fence, ran from the vehicle while firing shots at the pursuing officers. He disappeared into the neighborhood. An intensive search began by officers, K-9, and helicopter. An eight-block perimeter was established and a house by house search continued until it was terminated because of darkness.

Several hours later a direct confrontation again occurred between the suspect and officers when he was seen hiding in a garage. He again fired at officers and fled to a public storage area near a large apartment complex. A perimeter was quickly established and the Gold Team was again called and assigned the responsibility to search within the controlled area. Sergeant Deffner realized that if the suspect was on the roof of the apartment complex, he would have a definite advantage over the officers below who where attempting to arrest him. Sergeant Deffner made the decision to search the roof with two of his team members. While on the roof the officers heard noises in a yard below. As Sergeant Deffner peered over the edge of the roof he was shot in the face by the suspect.

Sergeant Deffner died that night making the ultimate and final sacrifice for his community and fellow officers. As the suspect was again trying to escape he was shot and killed by officers.

Sergeant Rick Deffner was awarded the Medal of Valor, posthomously, for conspicious bravery above and beyond the call of duty. The gymnasium at the Sheriff’s Training Academy is dedicated and named for Sergeant Richard E. Deffner.

Sergeant Richard Deffner is buried at Mount Vernon Memorial Park on Greenback Lane.

A 29-year-old Stockton policeman, chasing a burglary suspect, collapsed and died an hour later at St. Joseph’s Medical Center.

Arthur Edward Ford, a Sacramento native who joined the Stockton force in June 1986, had completed job probation just a month ago and had passed two physicals since he was hired.

“This is tough,” said Lt. James Horton, the department watch commander. “He was very, very well regarded by his peers and supervisors.”

Taken into custody for the burglary that led to the 1 ½-mile chase and apparent collapse were Samuel David Robinson, 38, and Robert Hinijos, about 40. Horton said the two had no known occupations.

Ford and his partner, Don Simmons, spotted the two about 3:25 p.m. as they allegedly took building materials from a vacant duplex. The officers were responding to a burglary report.

Horton said Robinson was immediately taken into custody by Ford, but Hinijos fled after a brief scuffle with Simmons. Hinijos ran along the Santa Fe railroad tracks in south Stockton.

According to railroad workers who witnessed the chase and were the first to reach Ford after he collapsed, the patrolman was just reaching the Charter Way overpass when he fell, rose to run a few more steps, then fell again.

“That’s when I got concerned, when he didn’t get up,” said Santa Fe brakeman Kenneth Jones. “When I got to him, there was no pulse and he wasn’t breathing.”

The railroad workers reached Ford and were soon joined by police and fire department paramedics who administered first aid. Other officers captured Hinijos.

Ford was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after 4 p.m. The autopsy report stated that he died of myocarditus, an inflammation of the heart sac.

Police Chief Perline F. “Jack” Calkins delivered news of the patrolman’s death to Ford’s wife, Susan. In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Stephanie, 6; and Mehgan, 2.

The burglary suspects remained in custody while investigators and a deputy district attorney reviewed possible charges.

District Attorney John D. Phillips said the suspects probably cannot be charged with any crime involving the officer’s death if it was due to a medical condition.

Horton, however, said an assault or homicide charge has not been ruled out.

“We’re investigating any possibility,” Horton said.

Ford was the first Stockton police officer to die in the line of duty since Nicholas P. “Nick” Cecchetti – son of former Police Chief Julio Cecchetti – was gunned down during a drug raid in August 1978.

A 41-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy have been booked on suspicion of murder after a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy died from a gunshot wound he suffered during a drug raid in South Central Los Angeles.

Deputy Jack B. Miller, who was shot in the head, died at 9:30 p.m. Jan. 9, a County-USC Medical Center spokeswoman said. Another deputy wounded in the raid, John Dickenson, 29, was treated for a gunshot wound and released from Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood.

Miller and Dickenson were among six peace officers attacked during the weekend in a series of unrelated violent incidents involving lawmen.

Miller’s alleged assailants, Dorothy Waters, 41, and the 17-year-old boy, were booked on suspicion of murder and possession of cocaine for sale, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Waters and the youth had been taken into custody after a gun battle at a home in the 1400 block of West 55th Street.

A third suspect was found dead in the house several hours later, and two others were questioned and released. Deputies reported that they confiscated 202 grams of cocaine, four handguns and a rifle from the house.

Miller, 33, a narcotics detective who worked out of the Lennox Station, was a 12-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department. He was married and the father of two children. Miller was the first deputy to be killed in the line of duty this year. Last year, Deputy Charles Anderson was killed when he surprised a burglar in his home, Deputy Van Mosley said.

At the Lennox Station, other officers offered a few grim words when they were asked about Miller.

“This is a bad time, an extremely bad time . . . We’re losing our friends . . . Good men are getting killed for doing their job,” said Deputy Gary Coniglio.

More than 1,000 law enforcement officers from around the state paid tribute to the first San Diego County sheriff’s deputy to die in the line of duty in this century.

Lonny Gene Brewer, 29, was gunned down December 5, as he and other Special Enforcement Detail officers stormed the apartment of Robert Gary Taschner, who had barricaded himself and exchanged fire with officers. Taschner was later killed and two other deputies wounded.

In all, an overflow crowd of some 2,000 mourners packed themselves into First United Methodist Church in Mission Valley, then spilled into its basement and finally outside, where they listened to the service over loudspeakers.

Their badges taped in black, sheriff’s deputies, members of the SED, park rangers, and police and California Highway Patrol officers by the hundreds spent 45 minutes filing past Brewer’s casket and saluting before hearing Sheriff John Duffy eulogize him as a “man of high principles.”

“He was the kind of man others instantly trusted and liked because he was so genuine,” the sheriff said.

Duffy raised his voice in anger when he said that the bullet that ended Brewer’s life had been “fired by a madman with a death wish. Taschner was a loser in life but he succeeded in destroying Lonny’s life and happiness for his wife Cathy and both of their families.”

As sunshine streamed onto the flag-draped casket at the front of the church, Pastor George R. Gregg prayed for strength for the slain deputy’s family.

“What shall we say of a man who goes to college to prepare himself for a career in law enforcement because he chooses a life of service? What shall we say of a man who, when people speak of him, say he was kind, gentle and loving? What shall we say of a man who dies in the line of duty?”

“We say he is a good man,” Gregg said.

“Here was a man who, as a weight lifter, climbed to the heights of physical strength. Yet he was wise enough to know that the true measure of a man is his tenderness and attitude.”

Comparing Brewer’s youth and violent death to that of Christ, Gregg said, “Life at its best is very short, yet we are stunned to lose one so young. We hope that through burning tears, this family can see the promises beyond.”

Brewer was born in San Diego and grew up surrounded by law enforcement officers. His father, Jack, was a mechanic for the San Diego Police Department, Duffy said.

After graduating from Grosspoint College with a degree in criminal justice, Brewer joined the Sheriff’s Department in April 1980 and moved to SED, the sheriff’s special weapons unit, 2 ½ years ago.

Brewer married another deputy, Cathy Wiermaa, a traffic officer in Poway, in November.

The couple knew the risks of law enforcement; Cathy’s father, Robert, is a retired San Diego police officer. But the knowledge was no safeguard against a man with a “Rambo-like fantasy,” Duffy said.

Brewer was remembered by fellow SED member Lt. Edward J. Lubic as “a rough and tumble character” who could handle the pressures and duties of the elite unit.

Assignment to SED carries “an unwritten but constant demand to be a cut above. Lonny definitely was,” Lubic said.

“He had enormous physical strength yet he was a quiet, unobtrusive man, definitely a team player. He knew the risks but was committed to the job. More than a team player, he was our friend.

“In the wake of his death, there is the strength he leaves behind. We loved Lonny and we shall miss him dearly,” Lubic concluded.

Brewer’s “ultimate sacrifice,” said Duffy, causes officers to ask “ourselves, our God and the public we are willing to die for in order to protect,’ Why’?”

“We already know the answer. We know that we are the few who can hold the line, who can offer any hope for survival of the peace and tranquility guaranteed by the laws of our society,” Duffy said.

“On his wife’s birthday, Lonny Gene Brewer was killed by hostile gunfire. The phrase “killed in the line of duty” ends his career and his life on this earth. The phrase will give us cause to honor and remember him forever,” Duffy said.

A 10-mile-long police motorcade, lights blinking blue and red, escorted Brewer to his final resting place beside a pool and waterfall at El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley.

Deputy Scott Rossall, Brewer’s partner on the entry team, was shot in the leg by the same volley that killed Brewer. The 31-year-old Escondido resident stood, ashen-faced and braced by a cane, for more than an hour as part of the SED honor guard at graveside services.

After a 21-gun salute and the haunting refrain of “Taps” played by two buglers on a nearby hillside, Cathy Brewer bent sobbing over the flag that had draped the casket of her husband.

As a final tribute, five helicopters from the Sheriff’s Department, Life Flight and the Border Patrol flew over the cemetery, one of the Sheriff’s craft breaking away in the “missing man” formation.

Tears of sorrow were pervaded by bonds of unity as family and friends came together to mourn California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Thomas Taylor.

Taylor, 28, died last Thanksgiving Day after being struck by a car while issuing a traffic citation along Interstate 10 near Cathedral City.

Taylor, a Cathedral City resident, is survived by his wife, Brenda, and 8-year-old daughter, Kristie Lee.

A CHP officer for two years, Taylor had previously been a sergeant in the United States Marines.

Taylor left a deep impression among his fellow officers, said CHP Sgt. Jerry Thomas, who delivered Taylor’s eulogy to a standing room only crowd at the First United Methodist Church.

“From that first day, Mark was a morale builder. He was a fast learner, always ready to help, no matter how hard the job or the task might be,” Thomas said.

Taylor was the second CHP officer from the Indio office to die last year. Officer Michael Allen Brandt, a close friend of Taylor’s, was killed April 6 when his patrol car spun off Highway 74 just south of Palm Desert while Brandt was pursuing another driver.

When Brandt died, Taylor took it upon himself to act as a liaison between Brandt’s family and the California Highway Patrol, assuring the family’s needs and concerns were taken care of following their loss.

Following the memorial service, Taylor’s flag-draped coffin was carried from the church past ranks of saluting law enforcement officers by an honor guard of United States Marines – in attendance to honor Taylor’s six years of service as a Marine.

Before his remains were placed in a waiting silver hearse, the flag was removed from the coffin by the Marine honor guard, folded, and given to Taylor’s widow.

Dozens of law enforcement officers were in attendance.

Further services were scheduled in Taylor’s hometown of Benton Harbor, Mich. Burial was at North Shore Memorial Gardens, Hagar Shores, Mich.

The CHP sent an honor guard back to Benton Harbor, Mich., to attend the funeral.

Ranger Kowatch was driving from Mt. Palomar State Park to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park when he apparently lost control of his vehicle which rolled over several times causing his death at the scene.

Shasta County sheriff’s deputy Dennis M. Sullivan was killed Saturday, October 10, in a traffic accident while on his way to negotiate with a reportedly armed woman barricaded in a Mountain Gate home.

Sullivan, 41, of Shingletown died instantly in the 2:45 a.m. accident, the California Highway Patrol said.

He had been with the Sheriff’s Department since 1981.

“He was a good deputy, a good man to have with you,” Undersheriff Jim Pope said this morning.

Pope said the Sheriff’s Department is “trying to hang in there,” following the shock of Sullivan’s death.

The accident occurred on Highway 44 east of Shingletown. Sullivan was headed west near Inwood Road when the trailer of an eastbound truck tipped over onto his small pickup, a CHP spokesman said.

Sullivan had tried to avoid the trailer by moving to the extreme right side of the road, the CHP said.

The impact of the collision sheared the top off the pickup and forced the truck to go off the highway on the north side, the CHP reported.

The truck driver, Steven Poggie, 35, of Westwood, was not injured.

Sullivan, a member of the department’s hostage negotiation team for four years, was headed for Mountain Gate when the accident occurred. Lt. Dennis Boatner said that situation was a domestic dispute during which neighbors reportedly heard a shot fired, which was unfounded.

Sullivan was a patrol deputy who had been stationed at the Palo Cedro sheriff’s substation since March. Prior to that he was a resident deputy in the Shingletown area. He went to work for the Sheriff’s Department after 11 years with the South San Francisco Police Department.

Pope said Sullivan designed and implemented the South San Francisco department’s field training program. As a sergeant there he supervised the operations division, community relations and crime prevention programs, Pope said.

Sullivan was an avid fisherman and hunter.

“I don’t think you’d find a single person in Shingletown who didn’t like Skip. He was a hell of a good guy,” Phil Seberger said.

Survivors include a son and two daughters.

A rookie California Highway Patrol officer was killed and his partner was injured September 30, when they were struck by a car while investigating a minor accident on the Long Beach Freeway in Bell, the CHP reported.

A CHP spokesman said the officers were run down as they were getting back into their patrol car on a narrow strip between the northbound fast lane and the low center barrier after talking to the occupants of three cars involved in an earlier non-injury collision. Officer Autry was thrown into the center divider guardrail and died instantly.

The dead officer was identified by the coroner’s office as Terry Wayne Autrey, 28, of Upland. He reportedly was hurled more than 20 feet by the impact. Officer Jill Angel said he had been out of the CHP academy only 16 days and was being trained by his partner, Michael R. Price, 34.

Price was taken to County-USC Medical Center, where a spokesman said he was in fair condition, complaining of back, head and neck pain.

The motorist who ran into the officers stopped within a short distance, the CHP said, and was released after several hours of questioning by investigators. He was identified as John Adam Schirra, 35, of Walnut.

Patrolman Mike Maas said Schirra apparently tried to drive around the right side of the CHP car, but struck the rear right side of it just as Autrey was climbing into the passenger seat. Price was already behind the steering wheel.

Angel said the drivers and passengers in the cars that were involved in the initial accident were the only known witnesses. She described them as “very shaken up.” One woman reportedly became hysterical.

The accident about brought freeway traffic in both directions to a virtual halt for miles. All four northbound lanes were closed for four hours.

Autrey, who began his career at the East Los Angeles office on Sept. 2, was the father of two sons, Jeremy, 5, and Nicholas, 4. His wife, Roberta, 27, is expecting a third child, the CHP said.

Autrey was the first CHP officer to be killed in Los Angeles County since 1981. He was the 164th CHP officer to die in the line of duty since 1929, when the agency was formed, a spokesman said in Sacramento.

– Los Angeles Times

A National City police officer was killed while on duty June 24, the first in the history of the department.

Officer Robert Medina, 28, died in a fiery crash near Rancho Penasquitos on Interstate 15, south of Carmel Mountain Road. Acting Captain Tom Deese said he was returning in a patrol car from a parole hearing at Chino State Prison.

Medina lived in Chula Vista with his wife, Paula.

Officers paid their respects for Medina by wearing black mourning bands on their badges during the week.

“Everybody is taking it hard. It’s tough getting over the initial shock of it,” Deese said. “There was nothing he could have done to avoid it.”

A California Highway Patrol spokesman said one other person was killed in the accident, which occurred at 4:36 p.m. A 79-year-old La Mesa woman, Alice Bertha Fountain, died at Scripps Memorial Hospital, according to Deputy Coroner David Lodge. Medina died at Sharp Memorial Hospital at 6:41 p.m. suffering from massive trauma.

Medina died after a car driven by Fountain’s husband, Everett, crossed over the center divider and collided with his patrol car. The officer’s car exploded into flames and traveled from the fast lane into the slower lanes, striking another vehicle, the spokesman said.

“Robert Medina has passed on, but many remember him as a cop who loved his job.”

National City officers were in full dress uniform, and started lining up at Jack Murphy Stadium about an hour before going on to The First United Methodist Church in Mission Valley.

After his funeral, a long line of patrol cards drove down the freeway, with exits along the route closed to traffic. Several agencies attended the Episcopal services, including about 25 Chula Vista officers.

Pallbearers were all National City officers. They were Lieutenant Craig Short and Sergeant Mike Iglesias, officers Carl Pittman, Tim Patton, Cliff Breeden, and Detective Mark Musgrove.

Medina was buried at Greenwood Cemetery, with his widow, Paula, accepting a flag and plaque from acting Capt. Tom Deese.

The National City Police Department hosted a reception after the burial at Granger Music Hall.

During an interview, Medina’s wife, Paula, was calm but obviously shaken by her husband’s death. She spoke quietly but firmly about how she was feeling.

“Considering the loss, right now I feel I’m being pretty strong,” she said. “We had a real special love. Everyone said we had a glow when we were together. I feel very lucky to have known him and feel I was made a better person by knowing him.”

Paula and Robert would have celebrated their first wedding anniversary July 14.

Medina, 28, graduated from Madison High School in 1976, and spent two years at the University of San Diego studying criminal justice. He then tested for the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, graduating from the academy fourth in a class of 300.

Medina served at the Poway Sheriff’s Office for six years, also working in the San Diego County Jail for three years.

In Poway, he was a traffic investigator and translator. He was bilingual, often interviewing Spanish-speaking subjects, a skill which he carried over to the National City force.

Larry Jacqout of the Poway Sheriff’s Office knew Medina well. Jacquot served with National City police for 15 years.

“He will be sorely missed by his friends with the Sheriff’s office and in National City. I didn’t socialize with him a lot because he was much younger than me, but he was a real top cop,” Jacquot said.

Iglesias, Medina’s squad leader, said he had been on the force for about a year. He died two days short of ending his probationary period.

These have been the best of times for James Pagliotti. He loved his profession, his challenging new assignment and, above all, a young woman named Vicky Houghton.

Even better days seemed ahead.

In October, he and Houghton were scheduled to be married, on the one-year anniversary of their first date.

But on the night of June 22, Pagliotti’s future ended when the 28-year-old Los Angeles police officer was killed in a shootout in a drug-plagued San Fernando Valley neighborhood. He died after responding to a fellow officer’s call for assistance.

“Jim did what had to be done because his community and partner were in peril,” Lt. Mike Hillmann, one of Pagliotti’s supervisors in LAPD’s famed Metropolitan division, told more than 2,000 mourners at a memorial service. “He was truly a role model for Metro and will never be forgotten.”

The service at Scottish Rite Temple dew uniformed police officers from more than two- dozen law-enforcement agencies throughout Southern California. All wore black bands of mourning across their badges.

Pagliotti, who joined the Metropolitan division last December, was remembered by Hillmann and other co-workers as an energetic, loyal and dedicated officer, who lived each day to its fullest.

“His zest for life pushed him to the limits,” said LAPD Officer Glynn Martin, Pagliotti’s close friend since they went through the police academy together. “Jim loved life and life loved Jim back.”

Martin described Pagliotti as “a man ahead of his time, who identified with two other Americans ahead of their time – James Dean and Bruce Springsteen.”

He quoted lyrics from the Springsteen song “No Surrender,” which he said best described Pagliotti’s attitude: “We made a promise we’d always remember. No retreat, no surrender.”

That attitude, along with Pagliotti’s desire, were trademarks of the five-year LAPD veteran, Martin told mourners.

“On that fateful Monday night, Jim never retreated, he never surrendered,” he said. “Jim we love you. Bye, old buddy.”

For Pagliotti, becoming a policeman was a longtime goal. He received a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Cal State Fresno in 1981 and joined the Los Angeles Police Department the following year.

“He just enjoyed catching crooks and putting bad guys in jail,” said Hillmann. “He took great pride in it.”

During the service, the temple was filled to near capacity, mostly with police officers that solemnly entered single file, their hats or motorcycle helmets tucked securely under their left arms. Pagliotti’s Metropolitan division colleagues were the last officers inside. They waited alone outside as a group, then walked in together and sat in front, just behind the slain officer’s family.

Following the eulogies, Police Chief Daryl Gates presented to Pagliotti’s mother, Alice, the American flag that draped her son’s coffin. He then quietly offered words of condolence to her and the officer’s fiancée, his father, Joe, and brother, Danny.

Houghton, the fiancée, was the first love of Pagliotti’s life, his good friend Martin told mourners.

“We mourn not only Jim, but Vicky, too,” he said.

Understandably, the service touched those in attendance. Many officers repeatedly wiped their eyes, some embracing afterward. Houghton and Pagliotti’s mother held on to each other throughout the morning, comforting one another.

“He was very good at what he did,” Houghton said quietly afterward. “He just loved his job.