News Articles Internet Articles (2015)
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Tribute to an ordinary street cop.Even though
I live on the other side of the country, on Friday, February 15, on KCAL,
CBS Channel 2 in Los Angeles, my wife and I watched what was billed as
one of the largest funerals in LA history. In attendance was California
governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa,
the mayors of several California cities, and among the political celebrities,
scores of police officers from Los Angelescity and Countyand
from other cities in California and around the nation. The street cop
was a 51-year LA SWAT team leader, Randal Simmons who, in his spare
time, ministered to street kids in South LA, convincing them that the
high they got from Jesus Christ would beat the high they got from
cocaine and LSD. Around 9 pm PST a man called 911 and told the operator that he had just killed three people. Police responded to an address on the 19800 block of Welby Way in the Valley neighborhood of Winnetka. After securing the outside perimeter of the house, they called in the SWAT team. Knowing there was still a hostage in the house, SWAT command ordered the team to enter shortly after midnight. To distract the man inside the house, one group of SWAT officers went around back, firing at the rear of the house as the entry team hit the front door. The time was
approximately 12:30 a.m. PST on February 7just about the time that,
on the East coast, still half-asleep, I was slowly maneuvering from the
bedroom to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. While I was thinking
about the CPAC conference I would be attending in Washington, DC that
morning, Simmons wasabout the same momentworried about
how to end the hostage siege without anyone else dying. The problems in the San Fernando Valley home appears to have stemmed from Rivera's anger over his father, Gerardo, dating a woman whom he brought into the family home. Edwin Rivera believed that his father disrespected the memory of his mother who died nine years earlier. The argument over the girl friend turned violent. When the smoke cleared, Gerardo Rivera, 50, Edgar Rivera, 19 and Andy Rivera, 21, were dead. The girl friend, identified as Elba Rivera, hid in a closet during the siege. She escaped around 5 a.m. when the SWAT team fired tear gas canisters into the house and then, using an armored vehicle, punched a hole through a wall in the back of the house. Once she was outside, more tear gas canisters were introduced, starting a fire somewhere in the house. The fire caused Edwin Rivera to run from the burning building. He came out shooting and was killed by a SWAT sniper.
Simmons' sister remembered an incident her brother relayed when he was giving foot chase to an armed suspect down a street in South LA. Suddenly the man stopped running and turned, pointing the gun at Simmons. Simmons had not unholstered his weapon. Simmons told his sister Valjean Adams that, at that moment, he thought he was going to die. He shouted out to the man: "Do you know Jesus?" Instead of firing his weapon, the man broke down and began to cry. Simmons witnessed to the manand arrested him. Simmons, a tough street cop and SWAT officer, had the gentle spirit of a shepherd. He was a minister who was affectionately called "the Deacon" by fellow officers. From mentoring gang members and playing Santa Claus each year for needy South LA children for more than 20 years, Simmons had a street ministry where he successfully ministered to underprivileged children and drafted them into a group he formed and personally financedthe Glory Kids. The name came from Glory Fellowship Church, the church he and his family attended. Born into a military family in San Bernardino in 1957, Simmons spent his growing years in Germany, where his father, a USAF Chaplain was assigned. The family returned to New York for a short time before returning to California where Simmons played football at Fairfax High School and, later, at Washington State University. Playing pro football was his dream. Simmons tried out for the Dallas Cowboys, but didn't make the team. The team he
did make loved him. Simmons was a 27-year veteran of the LAPD.
His weekdays were consumed with his job on the LAPD. His weekends were
dedicated to his real passionhelping street kids in the South LA
housing projects. Simmons worked on the UCLA Special Olympics and
for several years he coordinated Christmas toy drives at orthopedic hospitals
throughout the LA area for patients of poor families. Mayor Villaraigosa recently honored Simmons with a Crystal Angel Award (for outstanding community service) during the LAPD's annual True Blue Awards ceremony which honors the heroes in blue. When he received news of Simmons' death, Villaraigosa held a press conference at the crime scene. "It's a sad day in the City of Los Angeles to have lost an officer," he began. "The members of the Los Angeles of the Los Angeles Police Department are deeply saddened this morning having lost a member of their family. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of these two brave officers." Both Simmons and Veenstra had previously served as bodyguards to protect the mayor's children. LAPD Chief William Bratton was in Vancouver, British Columbia attending a police chief's conference when he learned of the death of Simmons. He immediately left the conference and flew back to LA where he attended the noon press conference at the hospital where Veenstra had been taken. In a 2-hour
made-for-TV funeral service, the City of Los Angeles honored the fallen
officer on Friday, Feb. 15 when his flag-draped coffin arrived at the
Crenshaw Christian Center shortly after 11 a.m. Earlier that day,
beginning around 8:30 a.m., officers from Simmons' division took
turns standing guard at the white hearse that carried his body. Scores
of police officers from around the nation stood at attention as LAPD officers
carried the coffin through the black glass doors into the church. Five minutes before the TV cameras at the Crenshaw Christian Center began rolling, only the people in Southern California, like his neighbor Mary Bobic, knew about the fate of a gentle street cop in South LA. On Feb. 7, when she saw his photograph on TV, she cried. She and her husband said, "He was a good man." Both realize they will never again see him jogging through the neighborhood, or playing basketball with his son in the front yard of his Rancho Palos Verde home. The Bobic's find it hard to believe that he is gone. I never met him, and before the funeral service, I never heard of Randy Simmons. But, in watching his eulogy, I had a real sense of loss. I felt what the LA community felt. If someone who never knew him can feel the loss for a man they never met, I can imagine the sense of loss felt by the citizens of Los Angeles. Particularly in a day when cops everywhere are increasingly branded with images of gestopism. While Simmons has been gleefully welcomed home in Heaven, he will be sadly missed by those who knew and cared for him on Earth. The Los Angeles Police Federal Credit Union has established a trust fund for Officer Simmons. To make a donation, please go to http://www.lapfcu.org and click on the red square entitled LAPFCU Community Corner and [proceed to the bulleted line "Donation Account for Police Officer Randal Simmons." Simmons dedicated his life in preserving the law, saving the people of Los Angeles from the unsavoryand protecting the streets kids from a lifestyle that start them down the road to crime and a lifetime of moving from one prison cell to another. His children have lost their father and his wife has lost her husband. Help them keep their financial dignity. If you would prefer, you can send a check to:
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