Hundreds Mourn Fallen Officer at Funeral

He had been borne up by his colleagues in life, and on Monday, six days after his death, LAPD Officer Robert “Bobby Joe” Mata was lifted up by them one last time and carried to his grave.

Mata, 26, died last Tuesday after his patrol car slammed into a light pole in the Harbor area. He had been responding to another officer’s call for help, and as he lay dying, 10 Los Angeles Police Department colleagues hoisted his car off the ground and moved it in a futile effort to save him.

On Monday, while a bagpipe wailed and his parents, widow and two young daughters watched in grief, eight uniformed pallbearers set down his flag-draped coffin on its grave site. An honor guard delivered a 21-gun salute and, as the flag was taken from the coffin and slowly folded, four police helicopters rose over a nearby hilltop and zoomed over the burial plot, one peeling away in the traditional symbol of tribute to a lost comrade.

Hundreds of police officers from throughout California, including LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks, stood at attention for the stirring ceremony at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, Mata’s native city.

As is often the case when someone so young dies so suddenly, it seemed unreal in its solemnity.

At a service earlier at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Rowland Heights, colleagues--tough, seasoned cops--choked back sobs as they described Mata as a man who was friendly to everyone, even gangbangers, and relished nothing more than a good joke.

In language somewhat rougher than that usually heard at a Roman Catholic church, Mata’s supervisor in the Harbor Division recalled Mata looking “like hell” one day as a police inspector made his way down a line of otherwise impeccably turned-out cops.

Stopping in front of Mata, the inspector demanded to know why his boots, among other things, looked so shabby.

“Sir, it’s either polish for my boots or milk for my kids,” Mata replied, according to the supervisor, Sgt. Rick Plows.

Then there was Mata, out investigating a theft, when something resembling a hand grenade came flying from the front door of a suspect’s house. As colleagues dived for cover, Mata discovered that the object was nothing more than a doorknob.

“Robert told me later that he wanted to smother the doorknob like a hero,” recalled Officer Javier Arenado, “but he didn’t want to get his uniform dirty.”

“You know,” Arenado said, “Bobby was always the light at the end of the tunnel.”

As he concluded his eulogy, Arenado looked out at Mata’s widow, Holly; his daughters, 5-year-old Kalei and 2-year-old Pi-Lani; and his parents, Robert and Josephina Mata.

“We loved him, and we will never forget him,” he told them, barely able to speak through his tears.

Mata, a six-year veteran of the police force, was the fifth LAPD officer in three years to die in the line of duty. His wife, whom he met during military service in Hawaii, shared his interest in law enforcement and recently graduated from the Sheriff’s Academy.

The funeral drew an overflow crowd of nearly 2,000 to the church to hear a Mass celebrated by Bishop Gambino Zavala and Msgr. Michael Killeen. Afterward, the California Highway Patrol shut down the Pomona Freeway for about 30 minutes while a miles-long procession made its way to the cemetery.

“It can be said, truly, Bobby Joe Mata laid down his life for his friends,” Killeen said. “He was committed, he was filled with love, and I’m sure that memory will never be forgotten.”