Death of First LAPD Woman Officer Killed in Line of Duty Came During Routine Stop

Two months after her graduation from the Los Angeles Police Academy, Officer Tina Kerbrat had to drive a murder victim’s mother back to the North Hollywood station and question the woman about her son.

It was a task that left the rookie officer--herself the mother of two young children--saddened and shaken.

“She told me afterward that she didn’t think she could go through that, that she never wanted to be on that end of things, where her children are hurt,” fellow Officer Felicia Green recalled later. “When I heard what had happened to Tina, that story kept flashing through my mind.”

On Feb. 11, 1991--four months after her graduation--Kerbrat became the first Los Angeles policewoman to be slain in the line of duty.

To honor her, the department created a special Police Academy award in her name--an award, ironically, that was presented to Christy Hamilton, who on Tuesday became the second Los Angeles policewoman killed on duty.

Kerbrat and her partner, Officer Earl Valladares, had been patrolling a bleak industrial strip before dawn when they saw two men walking down the street, sharing beers, investigators said. Drinking beer in public is a Municipal Code violation.

Valladares, a 20-year veteran, asked his 34-year-old partner if she had ever written an “open-container violation,” according to Capt. Bruce Mitchell, their commanding officer.

“She said she hadn’t done one yet, so they decided to pull over,” Mitchell said. “It was routine. It was a training exercise.”

As Kerbrat stepped out of the car, one of the men, saying nothing, fired four times with a revolver. One of the shots struck Kerbrat in the face, and she fell backward, mortally wounded, into the patrol car.

Valladares fired 10 shots at the gunman, 32-year-old Jose Amaya, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador. Amaya was pronounced dead at the scene. The other man, James Welch, 24, was arrested on suspicion of public drinking.

Kerbrat was survived by her husband, Los Angeles Firefighter Tim Kerbrat, their 6-year-old son, Craig, and their daughter, Nicole, 3.

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In the academy, Kerbrat had been older and more confident than her classmates, who called her “ ‘Mom,’ because she looked out for everyone,” according to one of them. She viewed police work “as a chance to do some good,” Green said.

More than 4,000 mourners gathered to pay homage at her funeral.

“We as a community have not done what is necessary to make our streets, our neighborhoods, our homes and our children safe,” Archbishop Roger M. Mahony said at her Requiem Mass.

“Until we do this for you,” Mahoney said to the officers present, “we must bow in shame and ask for your forgiveness.”