Burbank and Glendale police join thousands in Dallas at funerals for slain officers

Eight Burbank and Glendale police officers traveled to Dallas last week to join thousands in law enforcement in mourning the loss of five officers shot and killed in a sniper attack during a protest march earlier this month.

Six Glendale officers attended funerals in Dallas for three slain officers, while two Burbank officers attended two funerals, officials said.

“These people paid the sacrifice of their life for their job,” said Glendale Police Det. Shawn Carlson, who attended funerals of Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens and Sgt. Michael Smith, where he met officers from Kentucky, Missouri, Florida and elsewhere. “The least I could do is show respect to their family and loved ones to be there.”

While the mood was somber, area officers were overwhelmed by the outpouring of community support.

“I didn’t know how the community was going to be, if we were going to be met with protests,” said Carlson, an 11-year veteran of the Glendale force. “What I got was love and compassion from the citizens of Dallas and other cities.”

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

At the Dallas Police Department headquarters on Saturday after Officer Patricio Zamarripa’s funeral, two police cars parked out front were buried in flowers. Teary strangers approached Glendale police officers with hugs and heartfelt thank-yous, while drivers honked their horns as renditions of American flags — black and white with a thin blue line across the middle — flew from their cars.

“They’re walking up to any uniform that they see,” said Glendale Police Officer Teal Metts, who’d been to about a dozen police funerals during his 19-year law enforcement career, though never outside of California. “My immediate response is thank you for your support. We don’t really mean much without the support of the community.”

The scale of the Dallas ambush shook the law-enforcement community across the country. Locally, patrol officers in Glendale and Burbank, who routinely ride solo, were ordered to pair up immediately after the attack. The redeployments were ordered as a precaution, as there were no known threats to those agencies.

“This is something completely different,” Metts said. “They’re being, I believe, attacked in a way that’s much different than we’ve ever seen before.”

The day he returned to Glendale from Dallas, Metts learned that three more police officers were fatally shot in an ambush in Baton Rouge, La.

The deadly attacks occurred after two high-profile police shootings of black men in Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights, Minn., sparked unrest nationwide.

--

Alene Tchekmedyian, [email protected]

Twitter: @atchek