Hundreds Mourn Slain Deputy

Deputy Lonny G. Brewer, who died in a weekend shoot-out between a sheriff’s tactical weapons team and a barricaded gunman, was buried Wednesday after a funeral service attended by hundreds of law enforcement officers from throughout the state and as far away as Michigan.

Brewer, 29, a seven-year veteran of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, was eulogized by Sheriff John Duffy as a principled man with “no phoniness, no falseness, no selfishness or guile in the way he treated others.” Brewer, said Duffy, was “full of good faith” and exhibited “a certain boyish charm.”

A member of the department’s Special Enforcement Team, Brewer died Saturday when deputies attempted unsuccessfully to storm the apartment of Robert Gary Taschner, 37, in Escondido. Taschner, who was armed with a Chinese-made assault rifle, shot Brewer with a bullet that severed his aorta. The fatal bullet tore through Brewer’s upper arm and entered the chest cavity, through a gap in the side of his armored vest. Two other deputies were slightly wounded in the siege.

The deputies attempted to break down Taschner’s front door and were met with a burst of rifle fire that sent them in retreat. The mortally wounded Brewer got as far as an adjacent carport, where he lay for as long as 15 minutes before dying. Taschner was eventually killed when he dashed through the front door of his apartment, firing his weapon from the hip, and was felled by a barrage of police gunfire.

Fueled More Controversy

However, Taschner’s death fueled further controversy over the sheriff unit’s tactics when television news tapes showed a deputy sheriff firing his pistol from point-blank range at Taschner’s head, as the gunman was held on the ground by other deputies. Officials have not disclosed the reason for that final shot.

On Wednesday, Duffy described Taschner as “a madman with a death wish” and called him a loser, comparing him to the film character Rambo.

“From what we know, he was a fantasizer--a loser at life in almost every endeavor he attempted, but he succeeded in destroying life and happiness for Lonny Brewer and his wife, Cathy . . . before he played out his Rambo-like fantasy a few hours later and got his death wish,” Duffy said.

In his eulogy, Duffy attempted to blunt criticism of the department’s SWAT team’s tactics and Taschner’s death by telling the more than 1,000 law enforcement officers attending the funeral that they “are the few who can hold the line” and offer the only hope for law and order.

Compared to Spartans

“Not many of our fellow citizens, who are quick to criticize our every move, could ever muster the courage and commitment to do what we do,” said Duffy. The sheriff went on to compare the assembled officers to the 300 Spartan warriors, who, according to legend, stopped an invading Persian army at Thermopylae for 10 days, despite being outnumbered 3,000 to 1, before they were annihilated.

Cathy Brewer, who is also a sheriff’s deputy, was celebrating her 29th birthday on the day her husband was killed. The couple was married on Nov. 1. Cathy Brewer’s father is a retired San Diego Police officer, and Lonny Brewer’s father worked as a Police Department mechanic for 17 years.

She was escorted to the First United Methodist Church in Mission Valley by a uniformed San Diego police officer, who sat with her in a front pew, and accompanied her to the cemetery. Brewer’s body lay inside a casket that was draped by a U.S. flag and flanked by a uniformed honor guard comprising five sheriff’s deputies.

The 10 a.m. service was delayed by 45 minutes as the hundreds of uniformed police officers and deputies from dozens of jurisdictions walked up to the casket to pay their respects. A long line of officers walked solemnly down the church’s center aisle, and each officer saluted the casket. The mourners--about 2,000 in all--included a few hundred civilians and uniformed contingents from the Army, Marine Corps and Navy.

Moved by Support

“I am moved . . . at the demonstration of comradeship . . . from law enforcement officers from all over this county, the state and beyond,” the Rev. George F. Gregg said.

After the funeral, a cortege of hundreds of police vehicles drove to El Camino Memorial Park in Carroll Canyon, where Brewer was interred. The long processional clogged northbound Interstate 805 and entered the cemetery at a snail’s pace.

At the cemetery, a Marine honor guard fired a 21-gun salute and two buglers played taps. Cathy Brewer, who was sitting by the grave, let out an audible sigh when Duffy presented her the flag that covered her husband’s casket. The seven-year sheriff’s veteran quickly regained her composure and accepted condolences from many of the officers in attendance.