Paying tribute

Coral Wilson

Helen Flores and her cousin, Jose Angel Garibay, used to run around

their Costa Mesa neighborhood as children playing their favorite game

-- cops and robbers.

“He was always the cop, he was always the big guy,” Flores said.

The rules were similar to a game of tag. The person who was “It”

was the cop. Garibay, who was only a month younger than Flores,

always wanted to be “It” and he had all the toy equipment to make the

game more realistic. He even wore a badge.

“He always dreamed of being a cop. He thought it would be easier

to go through a military base to get to what he wanted,” she said.

Garibay, 21, lost his life Sunday, March 23, near Nasiriyah, Iraq

in an ambush. He was a Marine corporal, but his goal was to serve as

a Costa Mesa police officer.

On Sunday at 12:30 p.m., Police Chief Dave Snowden presented

Garibay’s family with a plaque posthumously making Garibay an

honorary Costa Mesa police officer.

“We’d learned that Jose Angel wanted to be a police officer in

Costa Mesa,” Snowden said. “We could think of nothing better than to

make him an honorary police officer.”

The fire department parked a shiny red fire engine outside the

house and also presented an honorary plaque and flowers to the

Garibay family.

Not only police officers and firemen, but Councilman Allan

Mansoor, City Manager Allan Roeder, Planning Commissioner Bruce

Garlich and other city officials joined family members, neighbors and

others on the front lawn of the Garibays’ home.

They had accepted an invitation Urbano Garibay, Jose Garibay’s

uncle, had extended to City Hall last week, welcoming city officials

to the family’s home to pay their respects.

“It started out to be a little thing from our department to the

family privately,” Snowden said. “But that didn’t happen.”

Fire Chief James Ellis estimated the crowd numbered 300 to 400

people by 2 p.m. Jose Garibay’s death has brought the war home for

many people, he said.

“You hear about the numbers and know war causes ugly things,” he

said. “But it is like one of our neighbors has been taken from us.”

Roeder said it is a special time, not just for family members, but

for the community to come together.

“It is one of those times you don’t want to be a dignitary, you

just want to be another person,” he said. “It is a sad reality, a

consequence of the military action we are involved with. It might

seem far away, but it is right here in our own community.”

Expressing his appreciation to the family for allowing the

community to share their grief, Roeder called Jose Garibay a hero.

“Jose deserved this and more,” he said.

The shrine accumulating just inside the door of their home spilled

out oas people kept arriving, bearing flowers, baskets of fruit,

flags and cards. Family members greeted guests and then retreated

into the house to escape from the sun.

Visitors overflowed onto the streets and into neighbors’ front

yards, gathering in small patches of shade and occasionally

embracing.

Tables of donated food had been set out, and ice-chests were

filled with soda, water and bags of ice.

Local businesses had heard the news and joined in. Taco Mesa, El

Ranchito, Staples, Michaels and other businesses have donated food or

offered discounts over the past week. Kinkos donated the large

poster-size picture of Garibay at the front of the house that had

been quickly surrounded by a colorful display of flowers and candles.

Flores, back in the neighborhood where she and her cousin used to

play, handed out handmade memorial pins with Jose Garibay’s picture.

The pins read “Forever our hero,” and a little yellow ribbon was

attached.

“It’s pretty hard,” Flores said. “But it is getting better.”

* CORAL WILSON is the news assistant and may be reached at (949)

574-4298 or by e-mail at coral.wilson@latimes.com.