Field Honors Legacy of Slain Officer : Oxnard: Newly renovated site is renamed for Detective James O’Brien, who was killed last year by a gunman. He officiated games there.

Wearing white gloves and crisp black uniforms, the Oxnard Police Department honor guard stood silently at arms while tears welled in the eyes of survivors.

“Many a cold night I’ve been at this field,” said Pat O’Brien, mother of slain Oxnard Police Detective James O’Brien. “But it’s a warm feeling now.”

In an emotional ceremony Tuesday, colleagues of O’Brien mingled with Oxnard city officials and unemployment office workers who had watched in terror a year ago as a suicidal gunman methodically shot their friends.

The occasion was the formal dedication of a sports field long associated with O’Brien, who for years officiated youth football games on the very field now named in his honor.

“The best way to keep someone alive is to make sure you never forget,” said Tom O’Brien, whose brother was killed last December by unemployed computer programmer Alan Winterbourne.

“Every time I drive by, it’ll jar my memory and I’ll think of Jim,” he said. “Remembering means he’s alive and very much well with us.”

The newly renovated athletic field in Beck Park at Laurel and C streets in south Oxnard will from now on be named O.B. Field, Mayor Manuel Lopez told dozens of officers, friends and mourners at the dedication.

The softball and football field was named O.B. Field rather than O’Brien Field on the recommendation of the dead officer’s co-workers.

“That’s Jim,” Pat O’Brien said, pointing to the gold-plated plaque that will commemorate the field. “It would have been too starchy to spell out James O’Brien. He was always ‘O.B.’ ”

O’Brien was killed Dec. 2, 1993, when he chased Winterbourne from an Oxnard unemployment office, where the chronically unemployed computer analyst shot three people dead and wounded four others.

Winterbourne shot and killed O’Brien near the intersection of Victoria Avenue and Olivas Park Drive when they stopped in traffic.

Family members said O’Brien’s confrontation with Winterbourne slowed the gunman enough so that other officers could catch him before he killed anyone else. Police fatally wounded Winterbourne in the parking lot of a jobs office in Ventura.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Jim and the other officers saved the lives of some of the workers at the Ventura (Employment Development Department) office,” Tom O’Brien said. “That’s where he was headed.”

City and police officials said naming the sports park for O’Brien was a fitting tribute to an officer who dedicated a large portion of his leisure time to youth athletics.

“We all feel a sense of loss because Jim was more than a member of the Oxnard Police Department,” Chief Harold Hurtt said. “He was a member of the community.

“He believed in hard work,” the chief said. “He also loved children, and this field is a place for children to come out and play sports.”

Leslie O’Brien, the detective’s wife, and the couple’s two children were not on hand Tuesday because they were not yet prepared to handle the emotion publicly, Hurtt said. The wife and children were expected to visit the field privately Tuesday afternoon.

But O’Brien’s brother, sisters and mother all took solace in knowing that the detective died doing what he loved best.

*

“He liked being a cop and chasing down bad guys,” said Tom O’Brien, who teaches math and science at Santa Clara High School, across the street from O.B. Field.

Survivors of the shooting took a moment Tuesday to honor those who came to their rescue that Thursday morning last December.

“Those of us who work at EDD never really had the opportunity to thank all of you officers--especially James O’Brien,” said Irma Lopez, the mayor’s wife, who narrowly escaped death during the rampage.

“We know what you’re going through because we lost our co-workers,” she said.

Trish O’Brien said this Thursday will be especially trying for her family.

“Thanksgiving is going to be hard, but we’ll be together as a family and Jim will be with us in spirit,” said the slain officer’s sister.

“We’ll light a blue candle for him.”