Fallen Officers to Be Memorialized at Events

Ventura Police Lt. Quinn Fenwick’s voice cracked as he described an old photograph filed in the department archives in which a uniformed captain stood poised at the gate of a cemetery, clutching a small boy’s hand.

Police Lt. Carl Handy had to stop for a few seconds and take a breath before offering details of the snapshot.

The pair in the picture, Handy said, were watching a long, slow procession of cars drive into Ivy Lawn Cemetery. The funeral was for the boy’s dad, Darlon Dee Dowell, a Ventura police sergeant killed in the line of duty on Aug. 7, 1978.

Sunday marked the start of National Police Officer Memorial Week, which was designated in 1962 by President Kennedy as a time to remember fallen law enforcement officers. Across Ventura County, police officers will attach small blue ribbons to their patrol cars to remember Dowell and the 28 others countywide killed while on the job.

Dowell, who was 32, was shot to death by a wanted armed robbery suspect as he, Handy and five other officers served a search warrant at a house on Olive Street. Handy was four feet from Dowell when the gun battle erupted.

Dowell is the only Ventura police officer killed while on duty.

“I think the reality is that people have empathy for the officers out there who are protecting them every day,” Handy said. “When you kill an officer, you’ve taken away something from the community--you’ve taken away part of their safety.”

Port Hueneme Police Cmdr. Jerry Beck said that although no officers in his city have died on duty, everyone is deeply affected whenever another department loses a member.

In front of the Oxnard Police Department on Tuesday, which is designated National Police Memorial Day, Chief Art Lopez will give the keynote speech at a memorial service for the department’s seven fallen officers, said Sgt. Doug Wiley.

“Five of the seven officers’ families will be in attendance,” Wiley said. “There will be a bagpiper, taps and a 21-gun salute.”

Ventura police officials started their remembrance Saturday by placing a wreath outside the Dowell Drive station during the department’s annual block party.

The street where the station sits and the department’s top supervisory award were named after Dowell. Nine police officers have received the award since 1990.

The names of the county’s 29 fallen peace officers are on the Peace Officers Memorial at the Ventura County Government Center.

On May 24, several hundred officers and relatives will gather at the memorial for a service. That event is being delayed a week so family members of fallen peace officers can also attend events in Washington, D.C.

“There will be a reading of all the names,” said Eric Nishimoto, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. “That’s something we’ve always done, and we will present flags to the families of officers who were killed most recently.”

Although little has been written about him, Stan Chaichana, a 36-year-old Navy petty officer and base patrolman, was the last peace officer in the county to die in the line of duty.

Chaichana was on duty Nov. 11, 1999, in a remote area of the Point Mugu naval base when he lost control of his patrol car and it flipped into a drainage ditch. He was knocked unconscious and drowned, said Teri Reid, a base spokeswoman.

Representatives from all law enforcement agencies in the county, including the California Highway Patrol and federal agencies, will attend the government center event.