Kelley Warren was 2 years old when her father, an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Division, was killed on May 8, 1967.
Policeman Roger R. Warren was 23 and had just graduated from the Police Academy two weeks before. While on patrol, he and his training officer saw someone crouched behind a barbecue pit at Van Nuys Park and decided to investigate.
As they got out of the car, a shot rang out. Roger Warren was struck in the armpit. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
On Tuesday, Roger Warren, Policeman Sidney Z. Riegel and Officer Gabriel Perez-Negron were remembered at a small ceremony at Van Nuys station during Police Memorial Week, which takes place the first week of every May.
The three officers, who were all assigned to the Van Nuys station, are the only ones who have been killed in the line of duty since the station was established in 1930s.
Since the LAPD was founded, 200 officers have been killed while on duty. They will be honored at a memorial at the new LAPD headquarters downtown today.
A memorial ceremony for all officers who have died on duty in California will take place Friday in Sacramento. Events for a national memorial week will begin May 9, with a candlelight vigil at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.
"It's nice to know that other people remember our family members," said Kelley Warren, now 45. "Because we'll never forget."
About two dozen family members, friends and retired and current officers attended Van Nuys station's first-annual ceremony, which was set up in a small grassy area next to the station's parking structure. The area, called the Grove of Remembrance, is marked by a stone with a bronze plaque that was dedicated in November. The names of the 11 officers assigned to the station who have died, both on and off duty, are engraved on the plaque.
Thursday will mark the 49th anniversary of the on-duty death of Riegel, who as a member of the elite Felony Unit, was responding to a housing project on Pierce Street in Pacoima to arrest an ex-convict wanted for armed robbery.
Riegel had been assigned to cover the rear of the two story building on May 6, 1961. As his colleagues approached the front, the suspect jumped out of a second-story window, landed on Riegel and shot and killed him.
Riegel, a World War II veteran, was 44 and had served 15 years with the LAPD.
"Sid was an upfront, excellent police officer," said Fred Hall, 85, a former LAPD motorcycle officer. "I cannot remember anything negative about Sid."
Perez-Negron was killed Nov. 1, 1995 when a speeding car ran a red light and slammed into his patrol car at the intersection of Sherman Way and White Oak Avenue.
Perez-Negron, 31, had been with the LAPD for less than a year and was just two months out of the Academy. The San Fernando Mission College grad had hoped to become a detective in the Foreign Prosecution Unit.
"I'm glad that they're still remembering all the officers like my brother," said Alfredo Perez-Negron, his brother. "It's quite painful, but at the same time, it's very good."
