Police Unveil Plaque, Bust Honoring 3 Fallen Colleagues

The city’s police union honored three fallen comrades Saturday, unveiling a memorial plaque and bust to one of them at its headquarters on North Sycamore Street.

Before more than 75 people, officials of the Santa Ana Police Officers Assn. unveiled the two-foot-tall bust of Cpl. Daniel Allan Hale, who died in a 1977 shootout with two paroled convicts, said Sgt. Ken Ice. Hale was 31.

Hale was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. Daniel Hale Jr., 20, who attended the ceremony, “looked so much like his dad, it was eerie,” Ice said.

The union also dedicated a wall plaque containing the names of Hale and two other police officers who died in the line of duty.

Officer Nelson A. Sasscer was shot to death in 1969 by a pedestrian whom he had stopped for questioning. Also honored was Edwin Jensen, a motorcycle officer who was killed in the early 1920s when he crashed while chasing a suspect, Ice said.

Both memorials were 16 years in the making.

After Hale was killed, a committee was formed to raise funds for the bust and plaque, but the project was sidetracked until 1993.

The committee last year commissioned sculptor Victor Riesau to create the bust and plaque. Riesau has also created a memorial to slain Sacramento law enforcement officers.