4,000 Mourn Long Beach Officer

Under an ashen sky, almost 4,000 mourners filled downtown Long Beach on Thursday to pay their respects to policeman Daryle Black, the first officer shot to death in the port city in almost 25 years.

In a ceremony marked by tears and laughter, friends, family and city leaders eulogized the young gang unit officer as a dedicated, selfless professional who regularly took the time to talk to youth on a personal level.

“He was a mountain of a man with a gentle heart,” Long Beach Police Chief Jerome Lance said. “Officer Black liked to achieve a goal through hard work. He’s even been referred to as the Ritchie Cunningham of the department. . . . He was determined to make a difference with young people.”

The morning of the funeral, an 18-year-old gang member was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the shooting. The criminal complaint alleges that Ramon Sandoval Jr. of Compton used an AR-15 assault rifle in the Saturday night attack.

Sandoval’s arraignment is scheduled for May 18 in Long Beach Superior Court. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. Four others are now in custody but no charges have been brought, prosecutors said.

Representatives from more than 100 law enforcement agencies--some traveling from as far away as Oregon--attended Thursday’s service at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. They were joined by city police, state and local officials, as well as Black’s friends and family.

Among the speakers were California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill, Deputy Police Chief Anthony Batts and Connell Black, the brother of the slain officer.

The ceremony included a call to attention for peace officers, a 21-gun salute, taps and a flyover by police helicopters in missing-man formation. Inside the theater, Black’s portrait and flag-draped coffin were center stage.

Immediately after the 90-minute service, officers from all over the state formed a motorcade of 1,000 cars and motorcycles for a funeral procession through downtown Long Beach to Brothers Mortuary on Redondo Avenue.

“It’s difficult to be here today,” Mayor O’Neill said. “It’s difficult because we don’t want to admit there is senseless violence in the world . . . that there are people who don’t care . . . and that assault weapons are in the hands of those who have no regard for human life. But we do want to be here to honor Daryle Black.”

The 33-year-old officer and former Marine was mortally wounded about 11 p.m. Saturday while on patrol in the 1900 block of North Lime Avenue, an area known for gang activity. He was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.

Black’s partner, Rick Delfin, 41, was wounded in the head and leg but managed to drive their car out of the line of fire and radio for help. Delfin remains in good condition at Long Beach Memorial Hospital.

Also hit was a 45-year-old woman who is seven months’ pregnant. Bullets penetrated the walls of her Lime Avenue home and struck her several times. Both she and her fetus survived.

Brother Recalls Devotion to Job

According to police, gang members in the neighborhood were threatening and assaulting their rivals when Black and Delfin drove into the middle of the fight. Prosecutors allege that Sandoval fired at the officers to keep a fellow gang member, who was armed with a .45-caliber pistol, from being arrested.

“My brother lived, breathed and died doing what he loved,” Connell Black told the mourners. “Law enforcement took my brother over. It engulfed him. The time he put into it was truly amazing. I pray that you all have that same commitment.”

Black joined the Marine Corps after attending high school in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he was born. He served as a military police officer and rose to the rank of corporal during his four years of service.

He became an Orange County deputy sheriff in the late 1980s and worked in the main jail. Four years later, Black joined the Long Beach Police Department and was assigned to the city’s gang unit about two years ago. There, he developed an expertise in prison gangs and became a source of information for other departments.

“He was a man of honor and courtesy,” said Sgt. Robert Razo, who was Black’s immediate supervisor. “He was not weighed down by negativity and doubt. If you were thinking about digging a hole to China, he’d be there to help you.”

Orange County law enforcement agencies estimated that more than 200 of their officers attended the funeral.

Santa Ana Officer Richard Rivero said Black had been his friend since the two worked together for the Long Beach Police Department in 1994.

“He was extremely kindhearted,” Rivero said, someone who believed in giving people second chances and who was respectful to everyone he met on his patrol.

Rivero saw his friend for the last time Friday at a community policing conference in Santa Ana.

“We talked for a long time about me coming over here, . . . about missing each other,” he said. But “there are a lot of things now I wish I could have said. I’m very proud to have known him as a friend.”

Former colleagues at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, where Black worked from 1989 to 1993 at the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana, also remembered the slain officer as a gentle man, courteous to colleagues and inmates alike.

“He was real polite, always cordial,” said Frank Fajardo, a Santa Ana police officer who worked with Black as an Orange County sheriff’s deputy.

“In my short career, I think I have been to an [officer’s] funeral every year,” said Fajardo, who has been in law enforcement for 10 years. “This is the second time I’m attending the funeral of a friend. . . . What I’ll remember the most is the lines of officers and the citizens paying their respect.”

The two recently attended a semester at Saddleback College, taking a course in applied psychology. Black was working toward a bachelor’s degree, Fajardo said. “He was constantly attending classes, trying to improve.”

Rocky Hewitt, the assistant sheriff who was Black’s supervisor at the jail, said Black impressed everyone with his kindness as well as his passion for the job. “He loved police work,” he said.

In another tribute, Officer Robert McKnight, a longtime friend, said “Daryle used to tell me that Long Beach was California’s best-kept secret. But I think Daryle was Long Beach P.D.’s best-kept secret.”

McKnight, an Orange County deputy who joined the Police Department on Black’s advice, said that when he graduated from the sheriff’s academy he was assigned to the Orange County Jail, an intimidating place for a rookie. “I tried to find the biggest, baddest deputy I could find. As soon as I saw Daryle Black, I knew my search was over.”

Black was 6 foot 1 and weighed about 250 pounds--personal statistics that were fondly recalled Thursday, as well as his prodigious appetite and mealtime quirks, such as cutting his food into small pieces. The ritual earned him the nickname “Butcher.”

“I once spent eight hours with him at a Claim Jumper restaurant,” said Trent Hoffman, an Orange County Sheriff’s Department recruit. “I could eat no more. I told him I had no room for dessert. He turned to me and said, ‘You wussy.’ ”

Batts, the department’s deputy chief, vividly recalled seeing the bullet-riddled patrol car that Black and Delfin had been riding in. When he looked inside, he noticed an overturned water jug on the passenger side. It was the Igloo container that Black always carried.

“I felt anger and guilt. Why God why? Why my friends?” Batts recalled saying to himself.

Batts said he and Black had a routine they would go through every time they met each other in the Police Department parking lot.

“Well Mr. Black, don’t we have a wonderful job?” Batts used to say.

“Yes, sir,” Black would answer.

“Which is better,” Batts would fire back, affecting the tone of a drill instructor, “your beloved Marine Corps or my beloved department?”

“It’s a good day, isn’t it sir,” Black would reply.

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Times correspondent Louise Roug contributed to this report.