The funeral for the four slain Oakland PD officers has begun:
Oakland Police officer Cesar Garcia, left, escorts relatives of OPD Sgt. Dan Sakai for the funeral services for the four slain Oakland Police officers at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, March 27, 2009.
Onlookers stopped to watch the funeral procession for Officer John Hege leave the Chapel of the Chimes Mortuary in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, March 27, 2009.
Brenda Bueno (right) and others watch the funeral procession for Oakland Officer Ervin Romans as it travels on Diablo Road in Danville, on Friday, Mar. 27, 2009.
InsideBayArea.com is posting a liveblog on the services:
12:05 p.m.
Funeral service underway
Fr. Jayson Landeza, OPD Chaplain, started services with a prayer after the national anthem was sung. Police chief Howard Jordan, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Attorney General Jerry Brown, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and OPD Capt. Edward Tracy offered comfort to the families.
“We call them heroes and rightly so but for those who loved them most, there’s no filling that empty place,” Schwarzenegger said.
“We know in Oakland there are those who find fault with police and criticize,” Brown said. “These men went to work expecting to come back. They didn’t.”
Feinstein said “These officers worked every day to keep the darkness away from our children and the darkness away from our families.”
Capt. Tracy’s voice trembled as he told the thousands at the Arena, “Words have little meaning in the shadow of these officers’ deaths.”
Tracy thanked the thousands of law enforcement personnel visiting from other agencies, the citizens who called 911 to report the officers were shot; and the man who performed CPR on one of the downed officers. “Please know that these officers died doing what they loved – being Oakland police officers.”
11:05 a.m.
Arena has reached its capacity of 19,000 – overflow crowd is being redirected to the Coliseum next door, where screens have been set up.
10:50 a.m.
Crowd just stood, fell silent as Oakland police filed onto the arena floor in dress blues and white gloves. The Areana is not completely full, but the top tier seats are filling up.
10:40 a.m. Arena nearly full, last coffin enters through north entrance
The last coffin, of Sgt. Dan Sakai, has entered the Arena. Sakai’s police dog `Doc’ came in, followed by the rest of the OPD K-9 dogs. The parking lot is about three-quarters full. Gospel music is playing, with photos of the officers on a large screen in the lobby. A lot of people are in the club area watching the screens.
A former Oakland officer who trained with some of the slain officers, Indio Police Cpl. Chuck Mabanag, said officers in Southern California are talking about the shootings.
Mabanag said he learned about it on Saturday from friends, just minutes after it happened. “I just sat in my police car, floored. You can’t even call it senseless because that would suggest there was any sense to it at all.”
10:15 a.m.
Officer John Hege’s flag-draped coffin is being carried by pallbearers inside, under arch of ladders from fire trucks, with a big American flag draped above. Sgt. Erv Romans coffin has already been carried inside.
9:55 a.m.
The hearses and processions are arriving at the Arena now.
The entire Oakland police force is lined up at the Oracle Arena north tunnel entrance, where the families will arrive.
Hundreds of motorcycle and police officers escorted the procession up 880 that’s now making its way into the Arena. Firetrucks and police cars with flashing lights from departments including Tracy, Fremont, Livermore, the CHP, Brentwood are part if the procession.
At the 880 overpass at Marina Blvd, three firefighters stood and saluted as the miles-long procession went by.
9:45 a.m. Mourners enter Oracle Arena
People are entering the Arena now. Some of those waiting to get in:
— Meocia Collins, from Oakland, said she moved here from South Carolina about seven years ago. “It’s so surreal, I just woke up this morning and felt live i needed to be part of it.
— Frances Bienati said “I had a rest in Oakland for 42 years and I know all these people and they kept me safe. I never was robbed. The entire force – I feel like they are my friends.” Frances, who arrived with her husband, owned a restaurant in the Dimond District.
“Oakland is still a great city, these are my heroes.”
— Patti Branscome, Chaplain of the Novato Police Department said “This is the way that we grieve…coming here today is a huge support for those who have lost fellow officers in Oakland.”
— Belvedere Police Chief Mark Campbell said “Every one of the officers here today would have been there gladly been out there to help” when the Oakland officers were shot.
— One woman from Stockton said she came because she is a homicide victim’s daughter. “I just came to show support for all the work they do.”
— Bianca Daye of San Leandro said she wanted to support the officers’ families, and said her cousin is a police captain in another city. “I was really shocked, heartbroken. It really really hurt me. They are here to protect the city and protect us and then they lose their lives that. I’m really wanted to reach out to the families.”
Someone has posted a video of the funeral procession through the city of Tracy for Mark Dunakin:
And now there is evidence that the scumbag started his rampage because he feared going to jail for raping a 12 year old girl:
The day before Lovelle Mixon unleashed a barrage of gunfire that killed four Oakland police officers, the department’s investigators learned that DNA evidence had linked the fugitive parolee to an unsolved rape this year, authorities said Monday.
The possibility that Mixon feared being arrested for rape is a key factor for investigators trying to understand why the 26-year-old Oakland man opened fire on two motorcycle officers who pulled him over for a traffic stop Saturday afternoon at 74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard.
Witnesses said Mixon stood over the wounded officers, Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, and Officer John Hege, 41, and fired at least one round into each with a handgun before fleeing on foot to his sister’s apartment half a block down 74th, acting Police Chief Howard Jordan said.
Although the reason for the traffic stop isn’t known, Jordan said witness accounts indicate that Dunakin, possibly suspicious of what turned out to be a fake driver’s license, motioned to Hege to remove Mixon from his car just before Mixon opened fire.
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According to the OC Register, attendence is around 17,000. Kinda puts those pathetic punks, 60 strong, marching in support of the human waste to shame… waste which the world is now thankfully and mercifully rid.
Mata,
The attendance was closer to 20 or 21,000 from what I’ve been told.
All the better, bronze. I’m sure the families and friends of the fallen also appreciate such a heartfelt turnout by the community. And how uplifting to see it dwarf those that marched for that human scum.
Friends of mine were there, he with the Patriot Guard Riders, she with parents of other PO’s (her son is an Oakland PO). Neither of them were able to speak about it last night so we just stayed on the phone for a while and said a lot of nothing.
To the Officers, their families and friends and the people of Oakland, you have my profound sympathies.
One of my favorites…for them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMVxzEueJ6A
“I long for household voices gone,
For vanished smiles I long…
But God hath led my dear ones on,
And He could do no wrong.”