O.C.’s Fallen Officers Remembered

Margarita Osornio still misses her little brother.

The last time they were together was in 1994. They were both twentysomething then, “ready for life.”

Michael, 26, had been with the La Habra Police Department for only 14 months when -- on Halloween night -- he was struck and killed by a drunk driver. He was in his patrol car, which he had stocked with candy to hand out to children while on duty.

On Wednesday, Michael Osornio was remembered again during the 20th annual Peace Officers’ Memorial ceremony in Santa Ana, an event sponsored by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Forty-eight officers and deputies in the county have died while on duty since 1912.

The two-day service, held at the plaza of flags in the county’s Civic Center, brought together more than 500 relatives and officers. On Tuesday, 48 Southern California peace officers completed a symbolic bike ride from Sacramento to Santa Ana to raise money for Project 999, a memorial fund for surviving family members.

They raised $60,000 this year, said Jon Fleischman, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.

The last officer to die while on duty in Orange County was Steven Phillips of the Westminster Police Department in 2004. Relatives held a candlelight vigil at the monument the night the bicyclists arrived in town.

They honored their fallen sons and brothers as they listened to “Wind Beneath My Wings.”

It was the same song that played in the music box that Tyler Pinchot gave his mother, Sally Jo Pinchot, before he was struck and killed on his motorcycle in 2003 while patrolling in Buena Park, she said.

“It was like he was trying to tell me something, like he was still here,” Pinchot said after Wednesday’s ceremony, her eyes welling with tears.

“You’d think it gets easier, but it doesn’t.”

The losses have also had an effect on fellow law enforcement officers, said Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona.

“I think the scary part for everybody is that this is just the awakening,” Carona said. “There are officers out there every day in the line of duty and it could all be over in the blink of an eye.”

Twelve years after his death, Michael Osornio’s big sister still struggled to hold back tears. She hasn’t missed a memorial ceremony for Michael. In fact, this year, she and her mother, Guadalupe, 63, decided to bring the young nieces and nephews Michael never met. The oldest is 10.

“We thought it was important for them to see this,” said Margarita Osornio, 39.

“We don’t miss it. It gives you goose bumps every time you come here. It’s just very intimate.”