Veteran CHP Officers Killed in the Line of Duty By Richard Hannibal, Retired Police Sergeant

Morro Bay Police Officers and Volunteers wore black morning bands on their badges in honored memory of two California Highway Patrol Officers who were killed in the line of duty on February 17, 2014.

Long time friends and partners, Officer’s Brian Law and Juan Gonzalez were working the graveyard shift in the Fresno area. Around 6 a.m. they received a call of a serious traffic collision on Highway 99, near Kingsburg. Both officers were riding in the same marked police car. Responding to the scene, the officers came upon the collision scene at a different location than it was reported. They swerved to avoid hitting the victims and wreckage and struck a guardrail, overturning their car. According to news sources, both officers were wearing seatbelts, but the collision was so horrific, they were killed in the collision.

Officers Juan Gonzalez, age 33, and Brian Law, age 34, had been with the California Highway Patrol for 6 years. Officer Law leaves behind a wife and three small children. Officer Gonzalez attended Fresno State, and was a member of the Nu Alpha Kappa fraternity. The organization is remembering his life on the fraternity Facebook page.

The California Highway Patrol says the last officer to die on the job in the central division was in 2005. Officer Erick Manny was killed in a rollover crash in Southern California near the Grapevine. However, in the Central Valley, the last CHP officer to die in the line of duty was in 1980.

2013 Law Enforcement Fatalities in Review

Law enforcement fatalities dipped to lowest level in six decades
33 officers killed in firearms-related incidents is fewest since 1887

According to preliminary data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 111 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2013, an eight percent decrease from 2012, when 121 officers were killed. This was the fewest number of fatalities for the law enforcement profession since 1959 when 110 officers died.

Traffic-related fatalities were the leading cause of officer fatalities in 2013, killing 46 officers. Thirty-one officers were killed in automobile crashes, 11 officers were struck and killed outside their vehicle and four officers were killed in motorcycle crashes. Traffic-related fatalities decreased four percent from 2012 when 48 officers were killed. 

Firearms-related fatalities were the second leading cause of death among our nation’s law enforcement officers in 2013. Firearms-related fatalities accounted for 33 deaths, decreasing 33 percent from 2012 when 49 officers were killed. Ambush attacks were once again the leading circumstance of fatal shootings in 2013, with seven officers killed.

Officer fatalities unrelated to firearms or traffic saw a 33 percent increase in 2013. Thirty-two officers died of other causes in 2013 compared to 24 in 2012. Job-related illnesses, such as heart attacks, increased substantially in 2013 with 18 officer deaths compared to eight officers in 2012.