Deputy Remembered as a Kind, Gentle Man

As detectives continued their search Tuesday for Deputy David March’s killer, friends and relatives remembered March as a gentle man who couldn’t stand a bully and sometimes brought home abandoned dogs.

“He felt like he was helping people who were being picked on by the bad guys,” David Lindsey, 54, said of his son-in-law, who had joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department seven years ago.

Although the motive for the shooting is unknown, homicide Det. Ray Peavy said investigators suspect the killer may have been a drug dealer with something to hide.

March, 33, pulled over a black Nissan sedan about 10:30 a.m. Monday in Irwindale. He and the driver got out of their cars and met halfway, when the man shot the deputy repeatedly with a semiautomatic handgun, Peavy said. March did not have a chance to fire back.

“He was caught totally by surprise,” Peavy said. “It happened totally within a split second.”

In March’s living room Tuesday, where friends and family had gathered, his mother, Barbara, refused to cry. She said she wanted to focus on her son’s positive contributions.

March was the oldest of her two children, a gawky, sensitive kid who took a lot of beatings growing up in Santa Clarita, Barbara March said. But after beefing up--as an adult, he was 6-foot-4 and weighed 230 pounds--the Canyon High graduate did not forget what it felt like to be bullied, his mother said.

“I told him if somebody picked on him,” he was never supposed to throw the first punch, she said. “But if they hit you first, go for the nose and draw blood.”

March’s father, John, said it took his son three years to pass the Sheriff’s Academy entrance exam.

When he passed the written part after numerous tries, he failed the orals because of nerves, he said.

March suffered from shin splints while in the academy. His family would rub his legs at night and bought him special shoes. Eventually, he made it.

Like many deputies, March spent his first five years working at a county jail, Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic. There, his mother said, her son got a crash course in the ways of the world.

When he moved to a patrol job in the San Gabriel Valley two years ago, he was wiser, but “I don’t think he [was] calloused,” said Capt. Roberta Abner, commander of the Temple City station where March worked.

“I think he was a kind person,” Abner said. “He’d certainly look for the good in people first.”

He was known for bringing home stray puppies to Teri, the high school sweetheart he married five years ago, and Teri’s 13-year-old daughter, Kayla.

Teri March forced a smile when someone reminded her about the gemstones her husband used to carry with him at work.

“Just because they were sparkly and pretty,” she said.

To cut down his hourlong commute, March had planned to transfer to the Santa Clarita station starting Sunday. His father-in-law said March was looking forward to the extra family time.

Outside the Temple City station Tuesday, the flag flew at half-staff. Inside, dozens of well-wishers poured into the lobby to leave flowers and offer condolences to the deputies who wore black mourning bands on their badges.

The killer is described as about 5-foot-7, Latino, with short hair and a mustache.

The gunman’s car, which may have been carrying two passengers, has tinted windows and the California license number 4BCZ512.

The plate led to another man, whom investigators detained for questioning. He was not arrested, and investigators would not say whether the man knows the killer, citing the ongoing investigation. Authorities said they have not found the car.

“We are making progress,” Peavy said.

Several deputies have been shot at in recent years in the unincorporated Monrovia area. Less than two years ago, a deputy was shot by a teenage gang member about a mile from the intersection where March was killed, authorities said.