Trust Fund Set Up for Son of Officer Killed in Crash

A trust fund was established Monday for the 14-year-old son of Anaheim motorcycle Police Officer Robert T. Roulston, who was killed Sunday in a traffic collision outside Anaheim Stadium.

Roulston’s son, Adam, had become a police Explorer Scout just last week, Anaheim Police Lt. Steve Brace said.

Funeral arrangements were still pending Monday for Roulston, 38, a 15-year veteran of the force who was knocked from his motorcycle when it collided with a car pulling into stadium parking before Sunday’s Los Angeles Rams football game.

An investigation into the collision is continuing.

The Police Department was trying to help Roulston’s son and comfort his widow, Deborah, an Anaheim police dispatcher who was on duty Sunday and did not know that her husband was involved when she sent paramedics and an ambulance to the collision site.

Deborah Roulston was the “secondary dispatcher” on that shift in the Police Department’s traffic bureau, Brace said. The primary dispatcher received the call about an accident involving a motorcycle and a car, and as secondary dispatcher, Deborah Roulston sent out the necessary support units to handle the crash. When others in police communications learned that Robert Roulston was involved, they immediately notified his wife.

“She didn’t know until the communications supervisor came in,” Brace said.

The collision occurred about 11:50 a.m. as Roulston was traveling east on Katella Avenue, between State College Boulevard and Howell Street. He collided with a westbound car driven by Steven Earl Davis, 29, of Diamond Bar as Davis tried to make a left turn into the employee-media entrance of Anaheim Stadium, police said.

Roulston hit the right side of Davis’ car as it turned. Glenn Woodruff, 19, of Anaheim, a security guard working at a business plaza parking lot next to the stadium, said it appeared that the car cut off the officer by making a sharp left turn in front of him. The impact of the collision sent the officer flying through the air, the witness said.

Davis was not cited. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the collision, police said.

In a press release issued Monday by Anaheim police, Roulston was described as “a sensitive, caring man who truly believed the law was a set of rules that kept the peace and safety of the community.”

Born in Fullerton and raised in La Habra, he attended La Habra High School. After a stint in the Army, he joined the Anaheim Police Department in 1973 and in 1981 was promoted to the rank of long-term acting sergeant. In 1984, he worked as a traffic accident investigator.

The highlight of his career, according to the department, came the following year when he became an Anaheim motor officer.

Brace, who was Roulston’s commanding officer, said donations to the Adam Roulston Trust Fund may be sent to the Anaheim Police Department’s traffic bureau, addressed to Brace’s attention.

Roulston was “an amateur comedian. He liked to make everyone happy. That was his goal here,” Brace said. “He was real sensitive to everyone’s needs. We’re all going to miss him.”