Los Angeles County Reserve Deputy Sheriff Constance Worland, 39, was accidentally shot and killed by her partner while they were responding to an assault with a deadly weapon call in Carson on May 2, 1981. She became the first and only (known) woman reserve officer in the U.S. to die in the line of duty.

Around 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 2, 1981, Worland and her partner, Deputy Phillip James Strenkowski, 28, a five-year veteran, were about to go on P.M. patrol when they received a “man with a gun” call, inside a condo complex. Before they left Worland placed four rounds into the Ithaca Model 37 shotgun, and the weapon was placed in the floorboard rack.

When the deputies arrived at the location, another deputy with a shotgun was going up a walkway and Worland exited with her service revolver drawn. Strenkowski took the shotgun from the patrol vehicle and joined the other officers. When a garage door suddenly opened, everyone turned toward it and Strenkowski charged the shotgun by manipulating the pump action. It turned out to be a tenant, however, the bleeding victim of the “245” came to the deputies and they were directed to where the suspect was.

Strenkowski, leaving the safety off and the weapon charged, placed the shotgun in the rack and drove to the location, which is around the corner from the first location. When they arrived he asked Worland if she wanted the shotgun, she declined and began exiting the passenger door of the vehicle. Strenkowski reached for the latch on the shotgun holder, trying to avoid Worland’s helmet that she let on the floorboard. He grabbed the shotgun and heard the sound of a gunshot. Believing one of the other deputies or the suspect had fired the shot, he looked at Worland. She was outside the vehicle with her back to him, she turned facing Strenkowski and he observed a pained expression on her face. Worland slumped to the ground and it was at this instant Strenkowski realized he had accidentally shot his partner.

Worland was transported to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and was rushed into surgery. She regained consciousness but died two hours after arriving at the hospital of massive internal bleeding caused by the gunshot wound in her back.

Strenkowski, 28, was not charged since an investigation by the homicide bureau of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department concluded that the shooting was an accident. Investigators later had him recreate his exact movements and conducted several tests. The simulations demonstrated that the shotgun discharged when it struck the steering column as it was being removed from the vehicle.

Worland was born Constance Ellen Gunn on Oct. 30, 1941, in Toledo, Ohio to Ashley and Janet Gunn. She was raised in Toledo, Ohio but moved to Glendora with her mother in the mid-1950s. She graduated from Baldwin Park High School in 1960 where she was active as a majorette and in the choir.

Worland became a reserve officer on Jan. 16, 1977, and completed 400 hours of training with Reserve Class 44. She was first assigned to the downtown Metro division before being assigned to the Carson station in 1978.

Sgt. Jack Ryan, the reserve coordinator at the Carson station, noted, “As often as we asked her to work, she volunteered even more. She was a fantastic person.”

Worland wanted to be a full-time deputy sheriff “but her age was against her.” (She was 36 when she became a reserve and a full-time deputy had to complete training and join the force before reaching 35).

On March 13, 1978, she was hired for full-time work as a communications systems operator (i.e., dispatcher) for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office at the communications center in East Los Angeles. However, she continued to work as a reserve officer in her off-duty hours.

The family declined a police funeral and thus Worland’s service was held without the traditional police honors. In respect for the family’s wishes for a “non-military” funeral, the numerous police officers that attended the service wore civilian attire.

Since Worland’s nickname was “Sunshine” and her favorite color was yellow, the police cars parked outside the church had yellow ribbons fluttering from the antennas. Also, many of the mourners at the service wore yellow ribbons and the casket was decorated with a “star-shaped badge of yellow flowers.”

Pastor Dave Miller told the mourners that Connie was “extremely dedicated” to her work as a dispatcher and as a volunteer reserve officer. He noted that “It was more than a job to her, it was a calling.” As a dispatcher “She was more than good, she was one of the best” and as a reserve she “Had great respect not only from the other reserves but from the regulars as well.” On a personal level, Miller described Connie as “A contagiously happy person (thus the nickname, “Sunshine”) who had a real joy.”

After the funeral service, a procession of 50 police cars led mourners from the church to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress. Red fire engines were parked at several intersections along the way, and firemen stood in front of them, their hands over their hearts. A police helicopter flew above.

At the grave the minister presented a yellow rose to each of deputy Worland’s daughters and then the three girls stood, joined hands, and walked to the pink casket. One by one, they placed the yellow roses on top of the coffin.

Besides her parents, Worland was survived by her three daughters, Elaine, 20, Linda, 17, and Denise, 16; and brother, Byron “Mike” Gunn.

On May 2, 1981, a sergeant for the Lake County Sheriff’s Department was shot and killed, after he stopped to assist what he believed to be two stranded motorists.

Sgt. Richard Helbush, a 13-year veteran of the department, was returning to the main office shortly after midnight when he observed a vehicle with a flat tire along the roadway in an isolated area. Stopping to see if he could help, Helbush discovered Robert Cox, 39, and Annika Deasy, 27, both of Stockton. As Helbush returned to his vehicle, he was shot three times in the back by Cox. Unknown to Lake County authorities, Cox and Deasy were suspects in a homicide in Stockton.

Taking Helbush’s wallet and revolver, Cox and Deasy left the scene in the sheriff’s patrol vehicle. When dispatch could not contact Helbush, other units responded for back up, finding him dead at the scene.

Another deputy located the stolen patrol vehicle, and went in pursuit, which ended when the stolen vehicle crashed into a tree. A gun battle followed, with Cox wounded in the arm, and Deasy taken in custody without injury.

More than 300 uniformed peace officers attended the funeral for Helbush, 34, who was interred at Kelseyville Cemetery.

Helbush, was the second officer of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department to be killed in the line of duty in recent times, the other being a court guard in 1967.

On October 21, after being bound over for trial by preliminary hearing, Robert Cox hung himself in his cell at the Lake County Jail.

San Quentin Staff killed in Line of Duty

Charles L. Sickles Wood Product Factory Supervisor, died on April 1, 1981 of injuries received while on the job at San Quentin on March 30.

The veteran correctional employee was attacked by an inmate while he was sitting at his desk writing daily production reports. He was the second CDC staff to be killed in the line of duty during 1981.

Sickles, 65 was a native of Missouri. He served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945 and began his state service as a textile foreman in the old jute mill at San Quentin in 1956.

In 1958 he served for a years as a correctional officer, then returned to the textile mill in 1959. He became a supervisor in 1970 and held that post until his untimely death.

He was survived by his wife and three children.

NOTE: the above is lifted from the Dept of Corrections newsletter “Newscam” vol VIII No. 3, May 1981.

Officer Paul C. Jarske was driving in snow-slush conditions when he lost control of his vehicle. Jarske’s patrol car skidded and left the highway, struck several obstructions then plunged into a creek, landing upside down. Officer Jarske was submerged in the water and drowned. The 47-vear-old officer was a 17-year veteran of the Patrol.

A California Highway Patrol officer, Gerald E. Dormaier, was killed after being struck by an oil tanker truck while trying to direct traffic around another tanker truck that had overturned on fog-shrouded State Highway 99.

The truck driver was booked on charges of vehicular manslaughter.

Officers said the accident occurred at 4:25 a.m. about 25 miles south of Bakersfield and a mile north of Mettler in the San Joaquin Valley, where heavy fog has caused several fatal accidents in recent weeks.

Dormaier, 44, of Bakersfield, a 14-year veteran of the CHP, died at Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield more than two hours after the accident.

Officers said a tanker truck had overturned and Dormaier and Officer Jerry Bean were setting up flares and directing traffic around the accident scene. Bean was not injured.

Officers said a truck driven by Bill Dunhue, 35, of Bakersfield, was traveling at “an excessive rate of speed for the conditions.” Dunhue was held at the Kern County Jail.

“Dormaier tried to wave down the approaching tanker truck, which slammed on its brakes, came in broadside and hit him and killed him,” a CHP spokesman said. “The visibility at the time was less than 50 feet. The fog was really dense.”

Traffic was blocked for almost two hours as authorities worked to clear the wreckage.

The accident occurred just north of the Grapevine, a twisting mountain pass on State 99.

Officer Dennis F. Webb, 30, was shot six times at close range by the man he stopped on December 24 because he fit the description of an armed robber who had held up a 7-Eleven market in nearby Sylmar about 90 minutes earlier.

The killer drove off in Webb’s black and white patrol car, abandoning it in the park about eight miles from the shooting scene.

Two fellow officers were enroute to back up Webb as he questioned the suspect when the gunfire erupted. They reached the fallen patrolman 90 seconds after his last radio transmission, but by that time the gunman was gone.

The officers carried Webb to the patrol car, rushed him to Holy Cross Hospital about a half mile away. Webb, married and a five-year veteran of the small San Fernando department, died in surgery at 5:50 a.m.

Webb had survived the ordeal of Vietnam and had been honorably discharged from the Armed Forces in 1975. He was currently a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve.

Sunnyvale Public Safety Department Officer Edward J. Roth, 44, was killed fighting a fire in “Silicon Valley” when a roof collapsed and he fell into the burning building.

Roth was one of a five-man crew fighting the three-alarm fire on the roof of the General Technology Co. building.

Roth, who was married and had two children, had been with the Public Safety Department for 15 years, working both as a policeman and fireman in the department in which employees rotate between police and fire assignments and often double on them.

Cause of the fire, which broke out at 10:45 a.m. is under investigation. Officer Gale Bate said the building was sued for assembling printed circuits and did not involve some of the exotic chemicals found in other blazes in the industry.

The fire was brought under control in 45 minutes by 40 firefighters.