Oakland Police Officer John Hege
EOW: March 24, 2009
Oakland police Officer John Hege has been removed from life support, three days after a parolee unleashed a barrage of gunfire that killed three other officers, authorities said today.
Hege, 41, of Concord was pronounced brain dead Sunday morning but was kept on life support so his organs could be donated in accordance with his wishes, said his father, John S. Hege of Piedmont.
Officer Hege's body was removed from Highland Hospital in Oakland shortly after 5 a.m. today. It was placed in an Alameda County coroner's van and escorted by sheriff's cruisers from the hospital to downtown Oakland, where the vehicles passed by police headquarters on Seventh Street before arriving at the coroner's bureau blocks away.
The process of removing Hege's organs began shortly after 8:15 p.m. Monday and was completed by 11:50 p.m., said Andrea Breaux, a hospital spokeswoman. The officer's heart, liver and kidneys were donated, Breaux said.
Hege and fellow motorcycle officer Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, were shot shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday after pulling over Lovelle Mixon, 26, at 74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard in East Oakland. After shooting the officers with a handgun, Mixon stood over the wounded officers and fired at least one round at each before fleeing on foot to his sister's apartment half a block down 74th, police said.
Mixon was a parolee who was suspected in a rape and was wanted on a warrant for violating his parole in February. He was on parole for a 2002 assault with a deadly weapon in San Francisco, a conviction that stemmed from the attempted carjacking of a truck on Mission Street.
Two hours after Hege and Dunakin were shot, SWAT officers Sgts. Ervin Romans, 43, of Danville and Daniel Sakai, 35, of Castro Valley stormed Mixon's sister's apartment and were shot and killed by Mixon, who fired from a closet with an AK-47 assault rifle, police said.
Other officers shot and killed Mixon. SWAT member Sgt. Pat Gonzales was shot and wounded during the shootout.
On Monday, Oakland motorcycle officers and SWAT members escorted the bodies of Dunakin, Romans and Sakai from the coroner's office. A cortege of police vehicles led hearses to Oakland police headquarters, where the cars stopped for a moment of silence before continuing on to a mortuary.
The shootings were the deadliest attacks on California law enforcement since 1970, when four California Highway Patrol officers were shot and killed by two men in the Santa Clarita Valley.
"March 21 will mark the darkest day in Oakland police history," said Sgt. Dom Arotzarena, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association. "I am lost for words in describing the feeling of this Police Department. I just want all of us as a community to come together and reach out to all law enforcement officers and thank them for their sometimes underappreciated jobs. As police officers we know that every day could be our last day, but when something like this happens, we are lost for any explanation."
A vigil for the officers will be held at 6 p.m. tonight at 74th and MacArthur. A public funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the Oracle Arena, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland.
