A Rialto police sergeant was killed March 3 when an assailant attacked him behind a gas station, grabbed his gun and shot him once in the head.

The death of Sgt. Gary Wolfley, 30, was the first line-of-duty police death in the city.

Wolfley was transported to and pronounced dead at San Bernardino Community Hospital.

After shooting Wolfley and firing at another Rialto police car, the alleged assailant, Dennis Mayfield, 26, of San Bernardino, ran from a Shell gasoline station to a house, Rialto Police Chief Ray Farmer said.

Mayfield smashed through a window of the small, one-story house and barricaded himself in a back room, taking resident William Haverstick hostage and shooting him once in the leg critically injuring him, Farmer said.

When Mayfield reportedly broke into the house, a Rialto man in his 30s, who was staying with Haverstick, fled and alerted the police.

Officers from four law enforcement agencies surrounded the house. After five hours of negotiations, which included the help of Mayfield’s parents, Mayfield threw Wolfley’s .357-Magnum out the window and surrendered, said Farmer.

Mayfield was arrested at 6:45 a.m. on suspicion of murdering a peace officer.

Howard Bell, 25, of Rialto, also was taken into custody at the gas station. Later, he was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to the crime, Rialto Police Lt. Brian Hebbard said.

Wolfley was on patrol duty with his wife, Candette Wolfley, an officer with the Fontana Police Department, early yesterday morning when he received a call of suspicious circumstances at the Shell gas station.

The sergeant arrived at the service station at 1:36 a.m. Two men, allegedly Mayfield and Bell, were standing near the gas pumps.

They apparently had gone to the gas station to search for someone with whom they had been fighting in San Bernardino late Sunday night, said Farmer.

When Wolfley arrived and identified himself as a police officer, Bell froze but Mayfield fled.

Wolfley chased Mayfield on foot and drew his revolver. Mayfield ran around the back of the gas station. Gas station attendants heard a shot and saw Mayfield running, Farmer said.

Candette Wolfley radioed for assistance. Rialto Police Officer Joe Cirilo arrived and sped after Mayfield, who fired several times at Cirilo’s patrol car.

One of the bullets blew out Cirilo’s windshield, Farmer said. Cirilo received minor hand injuries in the incident.

Mayfield ran about a quarter mile to Haverstick’s residence where he broke through the window and took the man hostage, Framer said.

Police evacuated an elderly couple whose house is in front of Haverstick’s residence and used their phone.

After five hours of phone calls, negotiations and the help of Mayfield’s parents, of San Bernardino, who came to the house to talk with their son, Mayfield surrendered.

Chief Farmer said Wolfley’s death is the first such death in his department’s history.

“It’s very difficult for us because we are a smaller agency. We’re like a family here,” he said.

Farmer said Wolfley worked at the department for 12 years. He started at age 19 as a dispatcher and worked his way up to a patrol officer, then a detective and finally was awarded sergeant’s stripes in May. At the time of his death, Wolfley was in charge of the department’s canine unit.

Wolfley graduated from Eisenhower High School in Rialto. He is survived by his wife, Candette, and a son, Christopher.

Tim Ruggles, a reserve with the Placer County Sheriff’s Department, had only one goal: to become a full-fledged deputy.

But his career ended before it really began when he died Sunday night, February 9, following the crash of his patrol car while on a call near Loomis, authorities said.

The wreck occurred on at 8:20 p.m., said Placer County Sheriff Donald Nunes. The driver, Deputy Jon Perriraz, 29, was only bruised and got out of the car on his own. Ruggles, however, lost consciousness and was pinned inside for nearly an hour before being pulled out by firefighters using metal-tearing “Jaws of Life.”

Ruggles, 23, of Roseville, was transported by helicopter ambulance to University Medical Center in Sacramento, where he was pronounced dead at 10:07 p.m.

“All of us in the department are choked up at Tim’s death,” Nunes said. “He was a fine young man who had chosen law enforcement as a career and was preparing to become a regular deputy.

“I was looking forward to promoting him in the near future.”

Ruggles had been with the department about a year, working on-call to relieve vacationing deputies and court bailiffs.

As part of his training, Ruggles was required to ride along with deputies. “That’s what he was doing Sunday night,” Nunes said.

The chain of events leading to his death began in Loomis when Deputy Mike Cash sighted a car driven by a suspected burglar. Before intercepting the car, Cash requested a backup, Nunes said.

Perriraz and Ruggles were responding to the call when their car darted off a curved section of Laird Road and crashed into a large oak tree just outside the Loomis city limits.

The sheriff would not speculate as to the cause of the accident, which is being investigated by the California Highway Patrol, and declined to report any other details.

CHP officials said details of the accident would have to come from the Sheriff’s Department after it received the CHP’s reports.

Perriraz was not available for comment.

Nunes said the suspected burglar who unknowingly triggered the event was not apprehended.

An autopsy conducted by the Sacramento County coroner’s office established that Ruggles died of head injuries, a coroner’s spokesman said.

Ruggles is survived by his parents, Merle and Pat Ruggles of Roseville and by an uncle, Hal Ruggles, a retired captain from the Auburn CHP office.

Recalling his eight years as Los Angeles’ chief of police, Daryl Gates counted 16 officers in that time “who have given their lives in the line of duty.”

“And every time one of us is killed,” said Gates, “the rest of us wear black bands around our badges. Well, I’m taking my black band off. I don’t need a black band to remember Arleigh and Ron.”

The names Gates was referring to, of course, are Detective Arleigh McCree and Officer Ronald Ball, the two members of the police bomb squad who were killed Saturday trying to defuse a pipe bomb in North Hollywood.

Gates was one of more than 3,000 people, including solemn representatives from virtually every police jurisdiction in Southern California, from around the nation and from the armed services gathered yesterday at the Scottish Rite Temple for a memorial service honoring the fallen policemen.

“I cannot remember when two deaths have stirred the department as deeply,” said Gates, who called McCree and Ball “heroes whose deaths have made us realize the awesome, awesome task of securing the peace in our communities.”

The 50-minute service, which opened with the playing of bagpipes, was led by Assistant Police Chief Robert Vernon, who read the 23rd Psalm and other portions of the Bible and then followed with what he called “the department’s official eulogies.”

In remembering McCree and Ball, both of whom were previous recipients of the department’s Medal of Valor, Vernon described McCree as “a calm, efficient, devoted, dedicated, unselfish professional.”

Vernon then quoted one of Ball’s previous commanding officers that said some years ago that in Ball’s case, “Outstanding is almost not enough for this copper.”

Jim Trahin, Ball’s former partner, used Ball’s nickname, “The Wizard,” to recall how expert he was in his chosen field of law enforcement, firearms and explosives.

“But more than that he was a compassionate and sentimental human being who was born 100 years too late,” said Trahin, who talked affectionately of Ball’s love “of his family, his home in Simi Valley, his western shirts and his cowboy boots.”

“Arleigh and Ron leave a legacy,” said Gates, “a legacy of devotion – to flag, community and nation. They are the kind of heroes that built America and made it strong.”

Interment was private, and at the request of both families, the police department’s Copper Creek Band played country and western music as the mourners filed out of the Scottish Rite Temple and into the rain.

Edith McCree eulogized her husband as a man who “made an indelible mark for all of us, and in doing so will never be gone from our lives.”

Besides his wife, McCree leaves a son, John, and a daughter, Kathleen McCree Downing.

Ball is survived by his wife, Ann, two daughters, Stacy and Tiffany Bardy, and a son, Scott.

Reprinted from The Los Angeles Herald Examiner
February 16, 1986

Recalling his eight years as Los Angeles’ chief of police, Daryl Gates counted 16 officers in that time “who have given their lives in the line of duty.”

“And every time one of us is killed,” said Gates, “the rest of us wear black bands around our badges. Well, I’m taking my black band off. I don’t need a black band to remember Arleigh and Ron.”

The names Gates was referring to, of course, are Detective Arleigh McCree and Officer Ronald Ball, the two members of the police bomb squad who were killed Saturday trying to defuse a pipe bomb in North Hollywood.

Gates was one of more than 3,000 people, including solemn representatives from virtually every police jurisdiction in Southern California, from around the nation and from the armed services gathered yesterday at the Scottish Rite Temple for a memorial service honoring the fallen policemen.

“I cannot remember when two deaths have stirred the department as deeply,” said Gates, who called McCree and Ball “heroes whose deaths have made us realize the awesome, awesome task of securing the peace in our communities.”

The 50-minute service, which opened with the playing of bagpipes, was led by Assistant Police Chief Robert Vernon, who read the 23rd Psalm and other portions of the Bible and then followed with what he called “the department’s official eulogies.”

In remembering McCree and Ball, both of whom were previous recipients of the department’s Medal of Valor, Vernon described McCree as “a calm, efficient, devoted, dedicated, unselfish professional.”

Vernon then quoted one of Ball’s previous commanding officers that said some years ago that in Ball’s case, “Outstanding is almost not enough for this copper.”

Jim Trahin, Ball’s former partner, used Ball’s nickname, “The Wizard,” to recall how expert he was in his chosen field of law enforcement, firearms and explosives.

“But more than that he was a compassionate and sentimental human being who was born 100 years too late,” said Trahin, who talked affectionately of Ball’s love “of his family, his home in Simi Valley, his western shirts and his cowboy boots.”

“Arleigh and Ron leave a legacy,” said Gates, “a legacy of devotion – to flag, community and nation. They are the kind of heroes that built America and made it strong.”

Interment was private, and at the request of both families, the police department’s Copper Creek Band played country and western music as the mourners filed out of the Scottish Rite Temple and into the rain.

Edith McCree eulogized her husband as a man who “made an indelible mark for all of us, and in doing so will never be gone from our lives.”

Besides his wife, McCree leaves a son, John, and a daughter, Kathleen McCree Downing.

Ball is survived by his wife, Ann, two daughters, Stacy and Tiffany Bardy, and a son, Scott.

Reprinted from The Los Angeles Herald Examiner
February 16, 1986

San Diego County rookie Deputy Kelly Ann Bazer, 28, was shot and killed by fleeing armed robbers on Jan. 13, 1986, while off-duty on the evening of her sixth day at the Police Academy. The three robbers were later convicted and sentenced to long prison terms.

Bazer became the first San Diego County woman deputy killed in the line of duty and the first San Diego County deputy, male or female, shot and killed since 1865. She was the second woman law enforcement officer killed in San Diego County.

Bazer, who had been sworn in as deputy sheriff one month earlier, had attended her sixth day of a 4-month recruit class at the Police Academy, when she parked her car outside her sister’s home. She was wearing a deputy s uniform but without insignia or a badge. She made a practice of stopping by her sister’s home each evening to report on her day at the Academy.

Suddenly two armed men ran out into the street and one was hollering at her to give him her car keys. The two men had just robbed the Safeway (grocery) Store and escaped with $2,000 in cash after brutally beating and robbing the store manager and holding several hostages inside the store.

The robbery was apparently poorly planned as their get-away driver was not there as they exited the store and they hijacked a car from a man outside the store. However, the two fleeing robbers soon abandoned that car when they could not figure out how to release the emergency brake. As they fled on foot, they saw Bazer parking her car and one said to the other, “There’s our ride.”

As the two men approached Bazer shouting that they wanted her car keys, she attempted to flee. She was not armed and was wearing a cadet uniform which did not identify her as a deputy sheriff. One of the robbers shot Bazer in the back from five feet away, and she fell to the pavement. One robber then bent down and picked up her car keys, and the two men fled the scene in Bazer’s auto, a blue Ford Mustang.

As neighbors ran to help the fallen Bazer, a red pick-up truck pulled up to the crime scene, asked where the men had gone, and then sped away. The neighbors thought the pick-up was driven by someone trying to catch the suspects, but police later determined that the driver was the get-away driver who had earlier failed to pick-up his two robber companions.

One of the first deputies to arrive on the scene was Pat Hartigan, who was dating Bazer. He attempted to comfort her as they awaited paramedics. Bazer was rushed to Grossmont Hospital by paramedics but went into full cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. She was pronounced dead at 8:23 p.m.

A massive search team was quickly organized comprised of 200 law enforcement officers from the San Diego Sheriff s Dept., the San Diego, Chula Vista, and National City Police departments, the California Highway Patrol and the U.S. Border Patrol. The team included five helicopters, horses, and tracking dogs.

Bazer’s car was found abandoned a short distance from the murder scene, and the two robbers got into the red pick-up with their get-away driver. A short time later, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Kevin Rudd saw a head in the bed of a pick-up and suspected illegal aliens were in the pick-up. He turned on his red overhead lights to stop the pick-up which then sped away. During the chase one suspect (unknown to Rudd) was thrown from the pick-up and then the two others jumped from the pick-up, abandoning it in the Bonita area. Agent Rudd found two revolvers, more than $2,000 in cash, a portable police scanner, a ski mask and other evidence inside the pick-up.

Because of Rudd’s alertness the search team was able to focus on the Bonita area. Phone calls came in from several citizens reporting “seeing men running through backyards and jumping fences.” The three suspects were successfully tracked during the all-night manhunt and by 7:42 a.m. all three had been arrested.

Ronnie D. Williams, 20, Jesse L. Stuart, 19, and Prentice Byrd, 19, were arrested and held without bond for the murder of Bazer and the armed robbery of the Safeway. All three were members of the Neighborhood crip gang and had criminal records.

Stuart, 19, the triggerman had a criminal record back to the age of 14.

The three men pled not guilty and were assigned public defenders. Stuart was convicted of first degree murder, robbery and burglary on July 31, 1986. He was sentenced to 35 years to life on Sept. 11, 1986, but that sentence was overturned on appeal. On Dec. 2, 1987, he was again sentenced to 35 years to life.

Ronnie D. Williams was convicted of first-degree murder at trial and sentenced to 33 years and eight months in prison. Prentice Byrd pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life.

Bazer was born Kelly Ann Hotchkiss on May 11, 1957, to Thomas and Gail Hotchkiss. She graduated from Granite Hills High School in 1975 and later studied to become a medical technician. Before joining the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, she worked at the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Center.

Shortly after graduating from high school, she married Michael Bazer, and the couple had two children, Jess, and Andrea. At the time of her death, she and her husband were in the process of a divorce and were involved in a custody dispute over their two children.

Bazer, 28, was hired by the San Diego Co. Sheriff’s Department in late 1985 and was sworn in on Dec. 13. She began a 4-month recruit class with 72 other cadets (including seven women) at the Southwestern Community College in Chula Vista on Jan. 3, 1986. She had been issued her standard Magnum .357-caliber revolver during a firearms class only hours before she was killed but was instructed not to carry the weapon until she had completed her training.

Besides her husband and children, Bazer was survived by her father and stepmother, Thomas and Nancy Hotchkiss of El Cajon; mother, Gail Reed Patterson of Capistrano Beach; and a sister of Spring Valley.

Throughout the day, he looked alternately confused and full of wonder. He gazed skyward as helicopters flew by and focused straight ahead to hear the whispering words of the city’s police chief.

A miniature police badge adorning the lapel of his blue blazer glistened in the sun.

When the graveside service was over, 6-year-old Ryan Williams rubbed his eyes with his hands, trying to keep the tears off his cheeks.

On his tiny lap lay the American flag that had draped the coffin of his father, slain Los Angeles police Detective Thomas Williams, buried in a Mission Hills cemetery November 5.

Five days earlier, the boy had watched in horror as his father’s life ended at 42, struck by a killer’s gunshots outside a Canoga Park day care center. The uninjured youngster might have died, too, authorities said, had the detective not warned his son, “Duck down.”

The warning – the final, selfless act of a dedicated police officer, father, husband and friend – was typical of Thomas Williams, said the three men who eulogized him at a memorial service that preceded the burial.

“His last act on Earth was to save the life of his young son,” said Father John Murray, a priest at Our Lady of the Valley, the Canoga Park Catholic Church that Williams attended. “What better image could we have of him? A fallen hero.”

Inside the overflowing church, some of the nearly 2,000 mourners stood along the walls during the service, while others prayed from the balcony, the lobby and the building’s front steps. Williams’ fellow Los Angeles police officers affixed black bands of mourning across their badges.

Roger Rowe, a classmate of William’s at military school and at Cal State Northridge, recalled his friend as a multifaceted man of integrity.

“There are still people outside in society who believe mere bullets can stop a man like Tom Williams,” Rowe said. “You can’t kill the ideals and principles he stands for.

“Tom, I’m proud to say I was your friend,” Rowe said. “The things you stand for are not dead.”

The detective’s murder, described by Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates as the first time an officer was stalked and killed, prompted an abundance of sympathy from police throughout Southern California. More than 1,000 officers from more than a dozen agencies attended the memorial and graveside services, creating a mile-long funeral procession of more than 500 vehicles to San Fernando Mission Cemetery.

“Tom was a man who meant so much to so many, who touched so many lives in so many ways,” Los Angeles police Chaplain Jerry Powell told mourners. “We say goodbye to a member of our family.”

At the graveside, a police honor guard fired the traditional gun salute, police helicopters flew above in the “missing-man” formation and a bagpiper played “Amazing Grace.”

After a bugler sounded “Taps,” the uniformed Chief Gates presented the American flag from atop the coffin to young Ryan Williams, then squatted before the boy, his 17-year-old sister, Susan, and the late officer’s widow, Norma, to individually whisper words of condolence.

Afterward, Gates hugged several tearful mourners.

“There’s so little you can say,” a somber Gates said after talking with Williams’ family. “It’s a very difficult situation.”

Four men were charged with the murder of Detective William’s, who was ambushed outside his son’s day-care canter.

The special circumstance allegations filed against the four defendants include lying in wait, killing a police officer and killing a witness.

Hundreds of police officers from as far away as Eureka and San Jose were among those honoring Jose “Joe” Cisneros, a Solano County sheriff’s deputy who was killed Sunday, Aug. 25, in the line of duty.

Uniformed officers from more than two dozen police departments and nearly a dozen sheriff’s departments stood in rows 12 deep, 30 across, on the lawn in front of the Bryan-Braker Funeral Home during the hour-long afternoon service.

Three lanes in front of the funeral home were used to park hundreds of cars and motorcycles.

Cisneros was shot to death while making a traffic stop near Vacaville. Two men were arrested within half an hour after a high-speed chase that ended near Winters in Yolo County.

Cisneros, a 13-year veteran of the department, was remembered by friends and colleagues as a warm family man and a model peace officer.

“He was a quiet guy, always calm. If you had the same beat, you were safe with Joe,” said Sgt. Ray Vaneck of the Solano County Sheriff’s Department.

“He was well liked by everyone he met,” said Solano Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Monroe. “”I feel a spoke in the wheel of life has been torn from us.”

Los Gallos, a trio of musicians, performed ballads between tributes to Cisneros.

Joe Sandoval of the governor’s office presented a flag to Cisneros’ widow, Elsa, and daughter, 13-year-old Cassandra, both of Fairfield.

Cisneros was born in Douglas, Ariz., in 1944 and became a sergeant in the Air Force before joining the Solano Sheriff’s Department.

He also is survived by a brother, Juan, of Douglas.

A reception in the Fairfield Community Center followed the services.

Officer Dean J. Esquibel was providing back-up in the high-speed pursuit of a fleeing motorcycle on State Route 198 near the Kings-Tulare County line. The two units were passing a truck when a driver ahead of the truck braked and a passenger car slowed and began to skid sideways. The truck then swerved left to avoid hitting the skidding car, forcing the two officers to swerve. Both patrol units spun out of control and Esquibel’s patrol car veered into a parked Caltrans road grader and burst into flames. The impact of the collision pinned the officer inside the burning vehicle. A passing truck driver extinguished the flames and CHP Officer Greg De La Cruz, who was himself injured, pulled Esquibel from the wreckage. Officer Esquibel, who was 23-years-old and a member of the CHP for just one year, died two weeks later. The motorcyclist was captured and charged with felony hit-and-run driving, resisting arrest, evading a police officer and driving with a suspended license.

Officer Raymond E. Miller was standing with a truck driver he was citing for illegally parking on the shoulder of Interstate 5 near Bakersfield when a truck-tractor drifted on to the shoulder and crashed into the patrol unit. The impact of the collision rammed the patrol car into the two men, crushing their legs. The truck then continued across all traffic lanes into the center divider where it overturned. Although he had sustained severe leg injuries, Miller directed traffic and emergency operations as he lay, on the ground. Three-weeks after the accident, Officer Miller died of a massive pulmonary embolism while waiting for surgery on his injured legs. He was 41-years-old and a 16-year CHP veteran.

Miller joined the CHP in 1969 and spent four years in Los Angeles, two in Fort Tejon and the remainder in Bakersfield. He left behind a wife, Denise, and his children, Paul, 18, and Dana, 15.