Officer’s Widow Mourns Her ‘Hero’ : Police: At a Simi Valley press conference, Jenifer Clark remembers her slain husband as ‘assertive and dedicated.’ She denounces his killer.

A policeman’s widow mourned publicly Monday over the death of her husband and denounced his killer, saying, “I can’t even call him a person, I don’t have a word to call ‘it.’ ”

Holding back tears in the glaring TV lights of a City Hall press conference, Jenifer Clark remembered slain Simi Valley Officer Michael Frederick Clark as “an assertive and dedicated officer” who was “my best friend and my confidant.”

She vowed to tell their 5-month-old son, Bayley, that “his Daddy died a hero.” And she thanked Simi Valley officers who risked their lives trying to save her husband in the gunfight that killed him.

Then, Jenifer Clark swore that if ever Michael Clark’s accused killer faces a parole board or the executioner, “I will be there.”

Michael Clark, 28, was the first police officer killed on duty in the Simi Valley department’s 24-year history.

He had moved there in May from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division in the San Fernando Valley “because he wanted a safer lifestyle for us,” his wife said.

He was called out Friday to calm a suicidal man named Daniel Allan Tuffree. He died when Tuffree began shooting at him while the officer tried to talk to the depressed man.

Tuffree, 48, is to be arraigned on murder charges today in Ventura County Municipal Court.

Clark will be buried Wednesday with full police honors from the Simi Valley and Los Angeles departments.

Wearing an angel-shaped pin given by a supporter, Jenifer Clark said: “There’s never going to be a day that’s going to go by that I’m not going to tell my son his dad loved him more than anything. That little boy was my husband’s whole life.”

Clark said she lived daily with the fear that her husband--whom she fell in love with when she was just 13--could die at the job he loved.

But she had firm faith in his skills as a policeman, she said, remembering one off-duty brush with danger:

“Three years ago, we were on the freeway, and some young kids pulled a gun on us,” she said. “My husband pulled out his gun, he identified himself as a police officer, pulled them over and got them out of the car. The kids were arrested.

“My husband had every opportunity to shoot that bullet,” she said. “And when we got home, he hugged me and he cried and he said: ‘I am so glad I never took that child’s life.’ ”

Michael Clark’s sister, Meredith Clark, said he knew the risks. “He said, ‘Meredith, don’t worry about it. There’s only going to be one person who’s going to go home [after a confrontation] and it’s going to be me.’ ”