Farewell to an Officer

With solemnity and tears, thousands of law enforcement officers from across the state converged Friday morning to eulogize and bury Long Beach Police Officer Karl Duane Simons, who died in a freeway crash last weekend.

Services for the 26-year-old Fullerton resident were in the same church he was baptized in two decades ago. As his wife, Leslie, sobbed quietly, Simons’ colleagues described him as dedicated and fearlessly enthusiastic, perhaps to a fault.

“He was an adrenaline addict, always looking for the next high,” his partner, Bill Swaim, told a crowd of mourners that overflowed Saints Simon and Jude Catholic Church. “Karl died the same way he lived: at a high rate of speed.”

The California Highway Patrol is still investigating the Sunday morning crash on the Long Beach Freeway. Police say the four-year officer was speeding to a car theft call when he hit the rear of another car, veered out of control and struck an 18-inch-thick steel post. Simons died instantly.

At least five other cars struck the debris and perhaps the officer’s body, which had been thrown across the center divider into oncoming traffic lanes, police said. Some officers have said Simons was driving faster than 100 mph.

“It’s a complex investigation because the crash involved several vehicles, and the accident scene is one-fourth of a mile long,” said Edward Gomez, the CHP division commander for Los Angeles County.

During the services, Gomez presented Leslie Simons with a flag that had been flown half-staff at the state Capitol this week honoring her husband.

“This is a grief we all suffer, every one of us in uniform,” he said.

Thousands of officers from police agencies throughout California joined the procession of patrol cars and motorcycles that wound through the streets of Huntington Beach, where Simons grew up and graduated from Edison High School in 1988 to Good Shepherd Cemetery.

The mourners included Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and Orange County Bishop Michael P. Driscoll.

O’Neill said Simons and other police officers “wear the badge that represents the best in all of us,” and she praised him as a source of pride for an entire city. Long Beach Police Chief Robert M. Luman added that the loss had “staggered” the 830-officer Long Beach force.

Swaim also read from a journal he wrote when he was first on patrol with Simons. The crowd of officers chuckled at the humorous descriptions of Simons’ habit of carrying several weapons “just in case.” Many nodded in recognition when Swain quoted Simons’ signature catch-phrase: “Let’s rock.”

They were silent, though, when Swaim described his buddy’s love of high-risk police work and his reaction one time during a freeway chase that exceeded speeds of 100 mph.

“It was at that point that he looked over at me and said, ‘It doesn’t get any better than this.’ ”

Friends described Simons as a fun-loving jokester, a devoted fan of “Beavis and Butthead” and an officer able to light up a room with his laugh and good nature. Athletic and amiable, Simons often was a center of attention in the ranks of the Long Beach department’s North Division.

“Those guys up there are just devastated,” Officer Maria Mendez-Lopez said. “They have been hit really hard by this.”

About 50 patrol cars from the North Division drove single-file to the Simonses’ home in Fullerton early Friday to take Leslie Simons and her family to the service. She has been hit doubly hard by tragedy this week: Her mother, Leslie Fauntz, 44, died Tuesday at a hospital in Whittier.

At the service, a friend read a letter Leslie Simons had written to her late husband, recalling his laugh, his smile every morning before work and his reassurances that he would come home safely. She also promised to keep his memory alive for their 7-month-old daughter, Katelyn.

“I will not let her forget how much you love her,” she wrote.

Donations to the Simons family can be sent in care of the Long Beach Police Officers Assn.’s Widows and Orphans Fund, 2865 Temple Ave., Long Beach, CA 90806. Also, the American Criminal Justice Assn. and Long Beach City College are sponsoring a car wash to raise funds for the family from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Texaco station at 1790 Palo Verde Ave. in Long Beach.