PHOTO/Courtesy photo.
Written by AARON CASTREJON | CityWatch Editor
IRWINDALE - The 24-hour vigil at the scene of Deputy David March’s death began midnight Saturday with a humbling ceremony on Live Oak Avenue.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies stand guard at the memorial in the 200 block of Live Oak Avenue every April 29 to mark the day when March was gunned down during a traffic stop on Live Oak Avenue between Peck Road and Longden Avenue 16 years ago. Community members and fellow law enforcement agencies from around the area visit March’s memorial to honor him. 
PHOTO/The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
March conducted a traffic stop around 10:40 a.m. April 29, 2002. March, a deputy at the Sheriff’s Temple Station, stopped the vehicle for a reported traffic violation.
The driver of the vehicle, 30-year-old Jorge Arroyo Garcia, exited and met March halfway to the 33-year-old deputy’s patrol car. A confrontation began and Garcia pulled out a handgun, shooting March multiple times. Nearby workers at an industrial company rushed over to March, the suspect vehicle had taken off. One of the nearby workers grabbed March’s patrol vehicle radio and summoned backup for the gravely wounded deputy. Backup arrived. One deputy attempted to revive March, but his efforts were in vain. March was declared dead at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. March left behind a wife and step daughter. Garcia told friends sometime before the shooting that he wanted to kill an officer. Garcia fled to Mexico and remained in hiding until his apprehension February 23, 2006, when U.S. Marshals and Mexican federal agents worked to locate him. After his extradition, Garcia faced his day in court and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, admitting to special allegations of intentionally killing a police officer in the performance of his duties and to using a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. |
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