Parks Agency to Dedicate Hiking Trail to Slain Officer

A memorial plaque will be dedicated this morning along with a hiking trail in honor of Michael F. Clark, the only Simi Valley police officer killed in the line of duty in the department’s 33-year history.

The Michael Clark Memorial Overlook Trail is part of nearly 160 acres of open space that Parker Ranch developers donated to the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District.

The park district is dedicating the memorial plaque and trail at the request of the developers.

The bronze plaque, which includes a replica of Clark’s badge, No. 295, is affixed to a boulder that later will be moved from the trailhead to a higher elevation along the ranch road. The site is south of Los Angeles Avenue and west of Stearns Street, near the Metrolink parking lot.

“The department is pleased those folks have donated this land to honor someone who gave his life for this community,” said Sgt. Joseph May, a Police Department spokesman. May said Clark’s name was included on peace officer memorials in Ventura, Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

Clark, 28, was shot Aug. 4, 1995, by a man who threatened to commit suicide and barricaded himself in his Aztec Court home. Clark and two fellow officers went to the residence of Daniel Allan Tuffree, then 48, after being alerted by his insurance company that he planned to kill himself. Tuffree had been upset that a pharmacy had refused to refill his Valium prescription.

After Clark briefly spoke to Tuffree from the backyard, the former high school teacher disappeared inside his home and returned firing a gun.

Two shots hit Clark, including a fatal wound to the shoulder. He was pulled from the scene with the help of an armored vehicle and was pronounced dead that afternoon at Simi Valley Hospital.

Clark had been with the Simi Valley department about four months. He left a wife and an infant son.

After two mistrials, a judge sentenced Tuffree to 54 years to life in prison in March 1997.