Tears for La Habra Officer : Funeral: About 1,000 colleagues are among 2,000 mourners at services for Michael Osornio, who was killed in the line of duty by a suspected drunk driver.

More than 1,000 Southland law enforcement officers paid their respects Saturday to La Habra Police Officer Michael Anthony Osornio, who was killed on duty Monday by a suspected drunk driver.

About 2,000 mourners crowded into Calvary Chapel in Diamond Bar as colleagues and friends remembered Osornio as an eager young officer who on most nights could barely wait to get out of the squad room and onto patrol.

“He had star quality,” La Habra Police Chief Steven Staveley said. “Mike lived every day as a police officer with honor. His life was short, his heart was true. His contributions to the community were great and he will be with us forever.”

The 26-year-old officer was the first La Habra officer killed in the line of duty. Osornio became engaged to his high school sweetheart just two weeks before he was killed and was remembered as being part of a close-knit family that supported his dream of becoming a cop.

“His family always came first,” Staveley said. “In his job application, he wrote about how much his family meant to him and how much he valued them. That solid background prepared him well for the rigors of police work.”

Osornio, the youngest of four children, visited his parents, Rafael and Guadalupe Osornio, almost daily. He lived in Montclair with his fiancee and had just purchased a home that he was in the process of renovating.

“It was to be his dream house,” Sgt. Vernon Mangels said during his eulogy. “Now, it stands unfinished.”

Although he had been a police officer for only 14 months, Osornio was a popular member of the 86-member force and known for an outgoing personality and sense of humor, colleagues said at the service.

“Mike was a great cop with a bright future,” Mangels said. “He cared about people and he loved his career. I can’t think of a day that went by that Mike didn’t have something good to say about somebody.”

Mangels recalled how Osornio decided to celebrate when he passed his probation period with the department.

“The traditional probation-passing activity is to go to a restaurant,” Mangels said. “But Mike brought a barbecue to work and at 2 a.m., he barbecued hamburgers for the crew.”

Mangels said Osornio’s best quality as a police officer was that he “was sensitive to people’s feelings and he cared about what happened to them. Thank God for the time we had with Mike on Earth and thank God for the hearts he touched.”

As a rendition of “Amazing Grace” was played on a bagpipe, pallbearers slowly carried the officer’s mahogany casket, draped with two American flags, out of the church and placed it into a white hearse.

The hearse then followed 50 motorcycle officers in a funeral procession of hundreds of police cars to Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.

“Mike would have loved all of this,” his close friend, 26-year-old Anthony Campillo, remarked after the service. “He would have loved that they closed the freeway for his funeral.”

During the graveside service that followed, five police helicopters flew overhead in a missing-man formation. Then there was a 21-gun salute by the Los Angeles Police Department Honor Guard. Row after row of police officers, including the entire La Habra force, stood at attention as “Taps” was played.

The officer’s 52-year-old mother trembled and tightly hugged the folded American flag that was presented to her by Chief Staveley. The other flag was given to Osornio’s fiancee, Chartina Skipper, 25, who silently wept. Rafael Osornio, 54, sat stoically as he was presented with a letter from Gov. Pete Wilson with words of praise for his son. The chief read the governor’s letter at the service.

The officer is also survived by sisters Sonia Osornio and Margarita O. Nungaray and brother Rafael Osornio.

Family members and friends gently placed single red roses on top of the coffin, then consoled one another underneath a canopy.

“My cousin was wonderful and always there for you,” Veronica Garcia said as the crowd began to disperse. “He was the best.”

This week, the district attorney’s office charged the suspected drunk driver, Marco Villegas Ramirez, with gross vehicular manslaughter instead of murder as had been requested by the officer’s department.

Police arrested Ramirez, 51, Monday night after his car allegedly raced through a red light at approximately 60 m.p.h. and slammed into Osornio’s cruiser at Beach and La Habra boulevards.

“I am so disgusted with the man who did this to Mike,” Garcia said. “I still can’t believe this has happened.”

Outside the memorial service. Staveley called the young officer’s death “a terrible waste.”

“And it’s idiotic,” the chief said. “This is a police officer who was taking care of our community. And when something like this happens, it just tears at the fabric of society.”