A City Honors Its Fallen Officer

In a city where streets are named for town pioneers and even crops that once grew here, Garden Grove added to a more somber tradition Tuesday--naming a street in memory of a police officer killed in the line of duty.

Andy Reese Court, in the red-tiled Brentwood Village housing tract, was dedicated as about 50 friends, along with the officer’s sister and widow, gathered more than a quarter-century after he was killed.

“It brings it all back,” said Helen Wharton, 79, who was married to Reese for 29 years. The couple had three sons.

“You just remember all these things,” she said. “You just don’t forget.”

A former reserve officer, Reese is one of five Garden Grove officers killed in the line of duty--more than in any other city in the county. The department was formed in 1957. Two streets have been named in memory of fallen officers; three more are planned.

Reese was honored about two miles from where he was killed in 1970 while directing traffic during the city’s annual Strawberry Festival. He was hit by an impatient driver who swerved around slow-moving cars.

“It’s so important to acknowledge the sacrifice our officers make every day,” said Councilman Van Tran during the ceremony. “But it is also a celebration, because Andy’s name will be in perpetuity.”

In March 2000, city leaders renamed a street in the Heritage housing development in memory of Myron L. Trapp. Trapp was killed in a shooting in 1959, the city’s first police officer who died in the line of duty.

Dedicating streets and parks is not a new tradition in Orange County. The shooting range and street in front of the Santa Ana Police Department are named for Joseph S. Boyd, who accidentally shot himself in 1998. Both Nelson Sasscer, a Santa Ana officer, and Les Prince, a Huntington Beach officer, had parks named for them after they were killed in separate shootings. Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Riches was honored with a memorial in Lake Forest, where he was gunned down outside a convenience store. And more than 45 fallen officers are remembered at the Orange County Peace Officers Memorial Monument at Santa Ana’s Plaza of the Flags.

Garden Grove, though, is unique. Developers are required to name a street in new tracts after a fallen officer until all fallen officers are honored.

Garden Grove Police Lt. Frank Hauptmann, who proposed the idea in 1999, plans to distribute fliers to residents in the gated complex to tell them the history of the street name.

The next street will be named after Donald F. Reed, a narcotics officer killed in June 1980 while serving an arrest warrant at a local bar.