Salute to a Slain Officer

More than 200 friends and community members honored the memory of California Highway Patrol Officer Donald J. Burt on Monday at the site where he was killed in the line of duty four months ago.

Burt’s widow, Kristin, and his parents, CHP Sgt. Don Burt and Jean Burt, unveiled a bronze plaque, featuring a bas relief of the slain officer, after a dedication at the University Chevron gas station.

“I have a lot of ambivalence about honors such as these,” said Kristin Burt, who attended the ceremony with her 8-week-old son, Cameron Don Burt. “They’re very two-sided for me.

“ ‘Don’t honor Donny for dying,’ ” she said, reading from a journal entry of her husband’s best friend, Tamara Dinkelbach. “ ‘Instead, learn from him.’ ”

Kristin Burt thanked the city for the memorial, and her family and friends for their support.

“Seven years ago today, Don and I had our first date, and four years ago today, Don and I got engaged,” she told the gathering. “It feels like everything’s come full circle here today.”

On their first date, she said, Burt told her that he wanted to become a teacher. But he later decided to follow in his father’s footsteps because “he thought he could reach more people.”

Through his death, the 28-year-old widow said, “he gets to be the teacher he always wanted to be.”

Burt’s father said his son “loved being a Highway Patrol officer. In his efforts to make this a better place for his family and community, Donny was killed.”

Burt was gunned down on July 13 after what began as a routine traffic stop. A computer check disclosed that the driver Burt had stopped at the gas station had a suspended license, prompting him to call for a tow truck and to search the vehicle. As witnesses watched from a nearby restaurant, the driver suddenly pulled a gun and shot the 25-year-old officer seven times.

A suspect, Hung Thanh Mai, 25, was arrested later in Houston and is awaiting trial.

Fullerton Mayor Chris Norby praised Burt for the work he did.

“All of us are the people he died for,” Norby said. “Wherever you are, Officer Burt, we know that you’ll listen when we all say . . . thank you, thank you.”

The bronze 16-inch-by-12-inch marker was mounted on a wall of the gas station at 2950 E. Nutwood Ave. Several floral arrangements and faded flags still sit at the foot of the wall.

When the marker was approved by the City Council two months ago, Norby said it would “allow people years from now to go by [the gas station] and see that small plaque and say, ‘This is where this man met his Maker in service to our community.’ ”

CHP Officer Alvin R. Yamaguchi, who has been coordinating numerous fund-raisers for Burt’s family, said Burt “was one of the nicest human beings that you could associate with.”

Added CHP Sgt. Steve Nibarger: “Don was one of the finest and brightest, and to lose his life the way he did was absolutely senseless.”