Community Mourns Loss of Slain Officer

Marie Aguirre felt a sense of pride when her son, Peter, who was a deputy sheriff in Ventura County, was assigned to patrol the Ojai Valley.

When residents of the valley came out Sunday to honor her son--slain while responding to a domestic dispute July 18 in Meiners Oaks--she was overwhelmed.

The two-hour public service began about 4 p.m. at Libbey Park Bowl. About 600 people came out to “remember the deputy, grieve as a community and show respect for all the other men and women in uniform,” said organizer Rev. Kurt Christenson of Holy Cross Lutheran Church.

Christenson, whose church is next door to Ojai Valley Community Hospital, remembers the chill he felt the night of Aguirre’s slaying. A “valleywide remembrance just has to happen for the community and for the Sheriff’s Department. We don’t usually say thanks for the work these men and women do,” he said.

The effort did not go unnoticed by members of the 26-year-old deputy’s family, including Aguirre’s parents and his sisters, Aileen, 24, and Jeannine, 15, who filled two rows of seats at Libbey Park Bowl. Aguirre’s widow, Enedina “Dina,” 26, sat with the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, Gabriella.

Aguirre’s family members were flanked by about two dozen uniformed deputies--some of whom came with members of their own families--who received a standing ovation as they made their way to their seats.

“We thank them a lot for this,” said Aguirre’s father, Peter Sr., who has been a symbol of strength during recent public and private events in his son’s honor.

The younger Aguirre, a native of Santa Paula, was no stranger to Ojai.

“We’ve always loved Ojai,” said Aguirre’s mother. “And Peter always loved to come here.”

Their favorite time to visit was during Christmas, when the brightly colored decorations welcomed visitors from near and far. That her son would keep the peace in the Ojai Valley was great news to Marie.

“I felt that when Peter was assigned here he was so lucky because this is such a beautiful community,” she said.

His luck lasted only seven months. On the night of July 18, Aguirre died after being shot twice in the head and once in the shoulder. The man who authorities believe pulled the trigger, 48-year-old Michael Johnson of Meiners Oaks, is being held in Ventura County Jail.

Although many residents have nothing but praise for the job the deputies do, some wonder if big-city ills have forever changed the quiet valley.

“I’ve lived in the Ojai Valley for 16 years,” said Elmer Remetin, 75, who used to live a block from the house on North Encinal Avenue in which Peter Aguirre was shot. “This kind of thing is hard to take. People are all shook up about it.”