Wall Completed as Memorial to Police Officers

The final touches were added Thursday to a memorial wall for six Oxnard police officers who have died in the line of duty over the past 90 years.

A private unveiling was held for police personnel. A public unveiling of the memorial wall is scheduled at 2 p.m. today at the start of a four-hour open house.

The memorial--with pictures of the last four officers to die and short narratives on the circumstances of each death--is stripped across a hallway next to the Police Department briefing room where officers converge at each new shift.

“Officers walk by this wall every day,” said Senior Officer Tom Chronister, a department spokesman. “These guys will be remembered.”

The wall includes memorials to Officer Jim Jensen, mistakenly shot in March by a fellow SWAT team member; Officer Jim O’Brien, who was killed in December 1993 by a gunman who shot up the Oxnard unemployment agency; Officer John Adair, who was fatally shot in 1980 responding to a domestic dispute call; Officer Fred Clark, who was shot and killed in 1971 on a domestic dispute call; Constable William E. Kelley, killed in 1921 in a shootout while trying to arrest a wanted man; and Deputy Constable Andrew M. McNaughton, slain in 1906 in an alley by an ex-convict.

The wall will be unveiled by Police Chief Harold Hurtt at the beginning of the open house, which is sponsored by the Oxnard Police Officers’ Wives Assn. The open house will include refreshments, and children are invited to help decorate the department’s Christmas tree.