Sheriff Awards New Honor to Slain Deputy

Stepping in personally in a move to right a perceived wrong, Sheriff Larry Carpenter presented a newly created Sheriff’s Star for Honor and Valor on Wednesday to the family of slain Deputy Peter John Aguirre Jr.

“Some people struggle with the words ‘honor’ and ‘valor,’ ” Carpenter said at a memorial service in explaining his decision to create the new medal and award it to Aguirre. “I don’t have that problem.”

Carpenter was alluding to an incident earlier this month in which the Ventura County Peace Officers Assn. decided not to award Aguirre its Medal of Valor--in recognition of his courage--and instead gave him a Distinguished Service Award.

Carpenter was highly critical of the association’s decision, and the family also expressed its disappointment by returning the award that was given to them in the honor of Aguirre.

Stung by the criticism from both the family and Carpenter, the association offered its “heartfelt apology” to the family, but explained the decision was not meant to be a slight to the slain deputy’s sacrifice.

Instead, association President Gino Rodriguez said the Distinguished Service Award was actually the association’s highest honor. Rodriguez’s explanation, however, did not seem to satisfy family members.

At Wednesday’s ceremony, Aguirre’s widow, Dina, said the sheriff’s decision to create the medal and award it to Aguirre corrected what the family felt was a slight by the Peace Officers Assn.

“This is the way it should have been all along,” she said, standing next to a memorial plaque that lists all 22 law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty in Ventura County.

She and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Gabriella, during the ceremony unveiled the plaque with Aguirre’s name newly added to it.

Aguirre, a 26-year-old rookie deputy who was born and raised in Santa Paula, was shot and killed July 17 after responding to a domestic disturbance call in Meiners Oaks.

When he and three other deputies arrived, Aguirre went to the door of the home and was greeted by a distraught woman.

When he walked past the woman, Michael Johnson, her estranged husband, came out of the shower naked and firing two handguns. Aguirre, who was hit several times, never got his weapon out of it holster.

Johnson is awaiting trial on murder charges. His attorneys have not contested that he shot Aguirre.

At Wednesday’s ceremony, Carpenter said Aguirre’s action that day was beyond the call of duty.

“He put himself in harm’s way,” Carpenter said, explaining that Aguirre placed himself between the woman and Johnson. “Some say that Peter did nothing special; I say Peter did something courageous, something heroic, something valorous.”

Along with the sheriff, Wednesday’s ceremony was attended by all the top commanders with the department, along with police chiefs from most of the local departments, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, a host of area politicians, and a phalanx of deputies in full dress uniform.

It began with a color guard made up of peace officers from all the area’s law enforcement agencies, and a somber prayer by department Chaplain William Glaser, who called Aguirre “one of our young warriors” and “a courageous officer who paid a dear price. . . . He is a hero and a hero he shall remain. Nothing more needs to be said.”

The ceremony was sponsored by the Ventura County Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee, which is made up of the five police chiefs in the county, Carpenter, Capt. David Kissinger from the local office of the California Highway Patrol, and Bradbury.

After the plaintive sounds of taps, Aguirre’s parents, widow, and grandparents greeted well-wishers.

Holding the medal awarded his son, Peter John Aguirre Sr. said: “We’re very thankful to Sheriff Carpenter and so proud of our boy.”