200 Pay Respects to La Habra Officer Killed in Collision

Nearly 200 people gathered Friday night to pay their respects to Michael Anthony Osornio, the young La Habra police officer killed by a suspected drunken driver this week.

“I’ve cried more this week than I have in five years because of this,” Rex Spraggins, a chaplain with the La Habra Police Department, told those assembled at Rose Hills Memorial Park.

“It’s such an overwhelming loss, but we can choose whether to hate or to love. If this makes us hate, everything will be for nothing. I think Mike would want his family to be closer than they’ve ever been before, to love more than they’ve ever loved before.”

Flanked by an honor guard of two uniformed La Habra police officers, Osornio’s uniformed body lay in an open casket along with the purple-ribboned hazardous duty medal the department had awarded him posthumously. Behind him in the casket sat a picture of his favorite pet--a boxer pup--and a photograph taken two months ago on a Cancun vacation showing the smiling 26-year-old officer in shorts, sandals and a broad hat, with his fiancee.

“It’s a big loss,” said Anthony Campillo, a close friend. “I have an empty feeling inside.”

Added Jason Schouw, another friend: “Life is precious. This reinforces that it can go at any point.”

La Habra Police Chief Steven H. Staveley tried to put the tragedy in perspective: “It’s not dissimilar to losing a child. Michael had real star quality as a police officer and there are so few of those. He was going to be great, and this is just so stupid and wasteful.”

Osornio’s police car was hit Monday night at Beach and La Habra boulevards by a driver who ran a red light at about 60 m.p.h., police said.

Marco Villegas Ramirez, 51, of La Mirada, who remains at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, has been booked on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter.