A church stuffed with legislation enforcement officers, household and buddies is saying farewell Saturday, Jan. 21, to Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Darnell Calhoun.
The service, at Ample Residing Household Church in Rancho Cucamonga, is underway after a 50-mile procession from a Murrieta mortuary that noticed lots of line streets and 15 Freeway overpasses to pay their respects.
The stage featured images of Calhoun in uniform for Riverside County and the San Diego Police Division, the place he beforehand labored. Flower preparations confirmed his sheriff’s badge quantity, 6097, and his quantity with the San Diego power, 6901.
The service started with Daniel Johnson singing “You might be Holy.”
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In his remarks, Ample Residing Founding Pastor Diego Mesa acknowledged the harm and anger that individuals are feeling over Calhoun’s dying.
“We is likely to be extra envious and jealous if we noticed him within the presence of God,” Mesa mentioned.
Danny Younger, a retired lieutenant from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Division and a Calhoun household pal, then spoke, saying he knew Calhoun since he was 10.
“What he’s been most persistently in his life has been his willingness to serve. … He willingly went out every day to serve mankind,” Younger mentioned. “He put service above self because the motto reads on the aspect of his patrol automobile.”
He then requested the viewers to face up and applaud Calhoun for his lifetime of service.
A brief video of former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal providing condolences was performed firstly of a video exhibiting a montage of images from Calhoun’s life and profession.
As he has on the Jan. 6 funeral for slain Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Isaiah Cordero and vigils this week for Calhoun, Sheriff Chad Bianco took the rostrum.
Bianco mentioned his division had not had sufficient time to course of Cordero’s slaying two weeks earlier than Calhoun was killed.
He praised the Calhoun household for have a “robust and unwavering perception in Jesus Christ.”
Concluding his remarks, Bianco turned to Calhoun’s widow, Vanessa, saying “when you and the boys have misplaced Darnell, you will have 4,000 aunts and uncles at your beckon name.”
San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit adopted Bianco, recounting Calhoun’s introduction of himself to command employees upon his hiring by the division in 2019.
“Every little thing was about household,” Nisleit mentioned. “… He made us a greater metropolis. He made us a greater division.”
Nisleit added that Calhoun’s household might add “one other 2,000 aunts and uncles.”
Erick Cobb, Calhoun’s pastor at Covenant Grace Church in Menifee, recalled a latest two-hour lunch with Calhoun.
“Darnell cherished being Vanessa’s husband,” he mentioned. “Darnell cherished being a dad. That’s all he wished.”
Johnson returned to sing “Superb Grace” earlier than the taking part in of bagpipes.
Earlier than the service, the church arrange outside seating for the general public to look at a livestream on an enormous display screen on a cool morning underneath sunny skies.
Corona’s Bob Newman was among the many many police chiefs attending the slain deputy’s memorial. He additionally went to the Jan. 6 service for Deputy Isaiah Cordero, who was killed throughout a Jurupa Valley site visitors cease.
“To have two (deputy slayings) so shut, I’m involved for the police and the sheriff but additionally I’m involved for our group,” Newman mentioned.
“And why? Why is that this occurring?” requested Newman, who mentioned solutions are tough to return by.
“You’ll be able to’t ask rational questions on irrational habits.”
On Jan. 13, Calhoun, 30, grew to become the division’s second deputy to be violently killed within the line of obligation in a span of 16 days after the division went virtually 20 years with out an on-duty slaying of a deputy. In all, 72 metropolis and county legislation enforcement officers have died within the line of obligation.
On Dec. 29, motorbike Deputy Isaiah Cordero, 32, a graduate of Cajon Excessive Faculty in San Bernardino, was ambushed by wished felon William Shae McKay, 44, throughout a site visitors cease in Jurupa Valley. He was remembered by the group as a devoted, pleasant officer who went the additional mile to assist kids. McKay was killed in a gun battle with police after a pursuit that led to Norco.
Earlier than 2022, the final Riverside County deputy to be killed by violence was Bruce Kevin Lee, in Could 2003. Since then a sergeant has died from a coronary heart assault, a deputy has died in a site visitors collision, and two deputies have died from COVID-19, in accordance with the Officer Down Memorial Web page.
Calhoun was gunned down seconds after he arrived on Hilldale Lane within the Lakeland Village group close to Lake Elsinore. The Sheriff’s Division recognized the shooter as Jesse C. Navarro, who was described in courtroom filings by his spouse as a meth addict who as soon as pulled a gun on her. Navarro, 42, was final reported in important situation in a hospital after Calhoun’s backup shot him.
Born in Pomona, Calhoun grew up in Murrieta, the place he was homeschooled and his dad and mom run a restaurant. Calhoun himself had labored at Calhoun’s Texas Household Barbeque. Earlier this week, vigils exterior the sheriff’s station in Lake Elsinore — the place he was stationed — and in a Murrieta park honored him.
Lots of attended the vigils and have donated to the household. And Calhoun’s spouse, Vanessa, who’s pregnant, accepted a suggestion from a nonprofit basis for a mortgage-free dwelling. The couple has two kids.
A former San Diego Police Division officer, Calhoun cherished soccer, in accordance with this system handed out on the service. This system includes a photograph of him clad in a Philadelphia Eagles jersey.
