Joseph Chairez
Date of Birth: September 28, 1976
Date Appointed: June 16, 2000
End of Watch: November 26, 2000

Officer Chairez and his partner were checking a couple of suspicious subjects when he suddenly passed out. His partner requested and received immediate medical response and Officer Chairez was transported to the U.C. Davis Medical Center. During the follow up medical treatment it was learned that Officer Chairez had sustained an aneurism. Early Sunday morning Officer Chairez’s condition worsened and he ultimately succumbed Sunday night.

Officer Chairez had been with the Sacramento Police Department since January 24, 1997. He started his career as a student trainee working various assignments including stints in Fleet Management, Property Division, and the Academy. On January 10, 2000 he entered the Sacramento Police Academy and graduated on June 16, 2000. After graduation he immediately began, what was his current assignment, field training.

Officer Chairez was born September 28, 1976, in Sacramento, California. He graduated from River City High School in June of 1995. Officer Chairez attended and received an Associate of Arts Degree from Sacramento City College.

Officer Chairez was also an organ donor.

Officer Chairez is survived by his parents, Jess and Theresa Chairez, his brothers, John and Jess Chairez and his fiancee Rebecca Cisneros.

Officer William C. Bean Jr.
Date of Birth: April 8, 1970
Date Appointed: April 10, 1995
End of Watch: February 9, 1999

The night Officer Bill Bean died, Tuesday, Feb. 9, his brother Brandon and his mother were standing outside the officer's home frantically trying to get information about Bean's condition after learning about a shooting incident. Brandon said, "I turned and looked at the sky and I saw a falling star. One that burned brightly and streaked across the sky. That is my brother. he will burn brightly for eternity."

Bean died that night, fatally shot during a traffic stop. He was trying to talk to a "wanted subject" when he was gunned down. He was flown to UC Davis Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Deputy Chief Albert Najera said that Bean had been wearing "body armor" but a bullet entered through an arm hole and hit him behind his left shoulder.

The incident began when Bean and his partner, Officer David Hogge, spotted a man they were looking for driving alone. They signaled the driver to pull over. The driver did pull over briefly but then drove off. He continued along at about 25 mph with the police car, being driven by Hogge, close behind. Larry Gibbs, deputy chief of investigations, stated that a short time later, the driver pulled over for a second time.

Hogge stopped the police cruiser, and Bean got out of the passenger side and walked toward the car. At that point the driver started firing and Bean was hit, Gibbs reported. Hogge returned fire and tried to chase the suspect on foot.

More than five hours after the shooting, police arrested Dundell Wright, 35, on suspicion of homicide. He is a parolee facing a return trip to prison because of a parole violation. Police found Dundell under an air-conditioning unit in the backyard of a house near the incident. A 9 mm pistol believed to be the weapon used in the shooting was found nearby.

Approximately 5,000 fellow officers, friends and state and local dignitaries crowded into the Trinity Life Center on Tuesday, Feb. 16, for Bean's funeral service.

The service, which was projected at two hours, but ran more than three hours, was punctuated by the sorrowful cry of bagpipes and a bugler who played "Amazing Grace."

Gov. Gray Davis called Bean "a genuine American hero," and Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr. offered his condolences as they presented flags to Bean's parents.

Bean was described by speakers as an eager and determined young man who doggedly pursued his goals, eventually winning over those around him.

Officer Lloyd Davis said of his colleague, "Super nice guy. You couldn't help but like him . . . He was very energetic."

Deputy Chief Albert Najera recalled that Bean had been a standout athlete since his days at Colfax High School. He was a starter for the Police Department at free safety in this year's Pig Bowl, his fourth consecutive appearance.

The coach of the police team in the annual football competition, Dave Hoskins, said "He never came off the field on defense. His dream was to play college football, and this past summer he achieved his dream by playing for the Wolverines and earning All-Bay Valley Conference honors.

Sierra Coach Rex Chappell stated, "Bean was an outstanding person. He is one of those people that made it fun to coach. He is an inspiration to a lot of our players. This is an extremely hard situation."

Bean, along with being a police officer, was a full-time student at Sierra College.

Bean's mother, Kim Toms of Colfax, sang hymns and told the congregation, "Thank you, everyone, for loving my son. He loved you.

"His friends are here now. they're saying they didn't know anybody who had a bigger heart. He always had a smile, always had a positive attitude and he loved kids," she stated.

She said later, "It means that Bill didn't die in vain." He was interested in "the potential of everybody's son . . . I'm awfully proud, of course: Going into the police department and serving America - what more could you ask?"

In 1989 Bean graduated from Colfax High School where he lettered in three varsity sports and later coached football. He went to West Point but was unable to stay long because of asthma. He returned home and enrolled in UC, Davis, where he studied and played football for one year.

Bean joined the Placer County Sheriff's Department in May 1991 and stayed until April 1995, when he joined the Sacramento Police Department.

Bean is survived by his mother, Kim Toms; father, Bill Bean Sr.; brothers, Chris and Brandon Bean; stepmother, Pam Bean; stepfather, Nick Toms; fiancee, Carrie Heimann; and three stepsisters.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Police Athletic League, 3520 Fifth Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95817.

Date of Birth: April 8, 1970
Date Appointed: April 10, 1995
End of Watch: February 9, 1999

Emily Morgenroth
Date of Birth: December 5, 1970
Date Appointed: January 20, 1996
End of Watch: October 17, 1997

Officer Emily Morgenroth, 26, of the Sacramento Police Department, was responding to the assistance of other officers who were on a felony vehicle-stop, when a DUI driver pulled into the path of her patrol car. Officer Morgenroth had been an officer for 2 years. Rest in peace Emily.

The following is Copyright © Sacramento Bee.

Investigators say the blood alcohol level of the driver of the pickup involved in a collision that killed a Sacramento police officer Friday night in North Sacramento was more than double the legal limit.

Chris Brown, 33, of North Sacramento, who is recovering at UC Davis Medical Center from shoulder injuries from the crash, has been charged with drunken driving and could face vehicular manslaughter charges in connection with the death of 26-year-old Officer Emily Morgenroth, authorities say.

Brown's blood alcohol content was reported at 0.17, more than twice the 0.08 legal limit in California.

Morgenroth's death is the first within the Sacramento Police Department since April 25, 1991 when Officer Michael Gartrell, 37, died after his patrol car smashed into a concrete abutment at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Highway 99 during a pursuit of a suspected drunken driver.

The wreck occurred on Marysville Boulevard just before 10 p.m. Friday when Morgenroth's patrol car broadsided the pickup driven by Brown.

She was responding northbound on Marysville Boulevard to a report of a stolen vehicle, but was not pursuing the vehicle itself, when her patrol car struck Brown's truck as he made a left turn into the Bill's Liquors parking lot just before the Del Paso Boulevard intersection, authorities say.

On impact, the truck, which had been southbound on Marysville, was caught under the patrol car push bumper and thrown into the air, landing between the store and a utility pole, the California Highway Patrol said. There were scrape marks 10 feet high on the wall.

The patrol car then struck a utility pole and spun out. Morgenroth's air bag opened, but the CHP was trying to determine whether she was wearing her seat belt. Brown's wife, Tammy, 23, who was a passenger in the truck, has a broken collarbone, ribs, pelvis and a punctured lung and is also recovering at UC Davis Medical Center.

For Morgenroth's parents in Pleasanton, the news brought by police of their daughter's death was a shock.

"Honestly, when they first came into the house, I didn't see the chaplain," her mother, Mary, said Saturday. "I just saw the police. When they said, 'Your daughter's dead,' you're stunned . . . At moments you want to scream and cry, at other moments, you feel numb."

Her daughter went into police work as a way to get into the FBI. She graduated from the police academy two years ago, and her time in Sacramento was meant to improve her "street smarts."

She graduated from Amador High in Pleasanton, and UCLA with a degree in political science. She studied Japanese and German in college, and spent two years in Japan teaching English before coming home three years ago, her father, Jerry, said.

There were several thousand officers and civilians in attendance at her funeral service which was held Thursday October 23. She was buried in Pleasanton the following Friday. She is the first female officer killed in the line of duty in Sacramento County history. She will be missed very much. She was very special to the entire department.

The family requests any donation be sent to:
People's Ethical Treatment of Animals
P.O. Box 96684
Washington D.C. 20077-7538

Michael Gartrell
Date of Birth: April 7, 1954
Date Appointed: April 16, 1988
End of Watch: April 25, 1991

Officer Warner died on June 1, 1981 from an accidental gunshot wound.

Officer Rodney Butts
Sacramento Police Department

Officer Rodney Butts died of a heart attack on October 15, 1975, after a struggle with a felon.

Rodney Butts
End of Watch: October 15, 1975

Joseph Scott
Sacramento P.D.
December 12, 1878

Killed in the line of duty.