Thousands Pay Tribute to Slain Officer’s Courage

Thousands of police and friends gathered Monday at a funeral for rookie Police Officer Christy Lynne Hamilton--less to mourn her death at the hands of a teen-age assassin than to celebrate her as a woman whose refusal to let go of her dream inspired them.

They faced without flinching the fact that Hamilton’s dream--of becoming a Los Angeles police officer just like her father--but at the age of 45--cost her her life.

Hamilton became the second female Los Angeles police officer to die in the line of duty when she was shot last Tuesday after four weeks on the force. She had graduated from the Police Academy just four days before she died with an award as the most inspirational cadet in her class.

“Some of you are experiencing guilt for what happened to Christy,” said Sgt. Ron Moen, a Los Angeles Police Department chaplain.

“But this was her lifelong dream, and nothing any of you could have done would have discouraged her from pursuing that dream. . . . Christy would have wanted to die doing what she loved most--being a police officer in the field.”

As family members and colleagues praised Hamilton’s pluck and her courage to start such a demanding career comparatively late in life, her younger classmates sat behind her flag-draped coffin.

Like many others in the audience, they smiled at speakers’ tales of her foibles, her sense of humor and her passion for the job, and brushed away tears at reminders of her lost potential and her sudden death.

Friends offered their condolences after the memorial service and a 21-gun salute. Kenneth Brondell said his daughter’s first career as a mother of two children, now grown, would have made her a cop with a sense of compassion unlike most others.

“She would have worn it (a badge) without arrogance. She didn’t want a badge to have authority; she wanted to go out and help people,” Brondell said. “It’s just too bad it got cut short.”

Moen also praised Hamilton’s maternal instincts and compassion, saying she once spent a few hours with two toddlers left homeless after she arrested their parents on drug charges.

“Inside of her was a heart so big I’m surprised her body was able to keep it all,” the chaplain told the mourners.

Chief Willie L. Williams, Gov. Pete Wilson and more than 3,500 police officers from as far away as Oklahoma City attended the emotional farewell to Hamilton.

In services at the Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, and later at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in the Hollywood Hills, friends and colleagues paid one tribute after another to Hamilton, the fourth Southern California police officer to die in the past six weeks.

“It’s just a tragedy that we’re here,” Williams, who was visibly touched by the ceremonies, said at the hillside grave site. “It’s the fifth officer killed in the line of duty in the 20 months I’ve been here. It’s just a tragedy. And it’s a shame.”

Hamilton was killed early last Tuesday when she was struck by a bullet fired by Christopher Golly, a 17-year-old Northridge youth who killed his father, then lay in wait to ambush arriving police officers. Hamilton was hit by one bullet through the armhole of her bullet-resistant vest.

Hamilton was described Monday as a fighter, who refused to let her age keep her from completing the rigorous Police Academy training. When she realized she would have to prove she could scale a six-foot wall to graduate, she built one herself in the back yard of her Thousand Oaks home, and went through one bruising practice run after another until she made it over.

“Your maturity and desire were unspoken inspirations--it was a determination that we drew from as a class,” Linda Thompson, drill instructor for Hamilton’s class at the academy, said at the grave site.

“You taught us all to keep our dreams alive.”

Kelley Steven, 24, Hamilton’s daughter, recalled in a eulogy that when Hamilton first said she wanted to become a police officer after the LAPD’s age ceiling was lifted last year, Steven thought her mother was going through a midlife crisis.

“She asked me if she was crazy to become a police officer,” Steven said, stopping often to compose herself. “I thought she didn’t have a chance. But you can never tell my mom she’s incapable of anything. She will prove you wrong.”

Then, crying openly, Steven--the last from her family to speak--told mourners to “conquer your hardships with (Hamilton’s) determination . . . laugh at yourselves with her sense of humor . . . and face every day with her courage.”

“Mom, you lived and died a hero,” she said. “I love you. We all love you. And we will miss you.”

Hamilton is also survived by a son, William Steven, 20, and her husband, Steve Hamilton, a Los Angeles firefighter.

In the days since her death, Hamilton’s slaying has become a national symbol of violent crime. President Clinton has mentioned her death several times in public speeches, and on Monday had a hand-written letter delivered to her parents.

“For Officer Christy Lynne Hamilton, becoming a policewoman was the beginning of a new life and the fulfillment of a dream--one she put off until after she raised her two children,” Clinton said.

The slaying also has prompted calls for tighter controls on military-appearing semiautomatic rifles like the one Golly used to kill his father and then Hamilton before he committed suicide.

Golly and his 49-year-old father, Steven, are to be buried side by side today in Camarillo.

On Sunday, family, friends and colleagues filed past Hamilton’s gold-hued casket, where she lay in her blue dress uniform, a single rose resting atop clasped hands.

But Hamilton’s death also has touched many others who did not know her that well.

Marilyn Paggi, who works at the Revolver Club--a combination store, bar and restaurant at the academy--went Sunday to pay her respects to a woman she knew only as an occasional customer.

“She was my age and I admired her for doing what some 25-year-old guys can’t do,” Paggi said, choking back tears. “It’s not just us, the whole city lost out.”