Police honor fallen officer

Marisa O’Neil

In the pre-dawn hours of March 12, 1995, Newport Beach Police Officer

Bob Henry pulled his patrol car into a 16th Street parking lot to

check on a suspicious vehicle.

Moments later, he was shot in the head during a struggle with the

car’s driver, a Garden Grove man despondent over a custody battle for

his child. The man then turned the gun on himself.

Henry, 30, died of his injuries a month later.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the shooting, the only one of

an on-duty officer in the Police Department’s history. Early this

morning, Newport Beach police officers -- some who knew Henry and

some who didn’t -- were expected to gather, pray and remember their

fallen comrade at the park that now bears his name.

“You think of all the people that stuff could happen to and it

wouldn’t have been him,” said fellow officer Randy Querry. “He was a

little stud. He held the academy record for years for push ups. He

did 220 in two minutes, or something like that. He showed up to

briefing every day eating a Power Bar.”

Querry was scheduled to work the graveyard shift the night Henry

was shot, but got the night off to play in the Orange County “Cop

Bowl” football game. Henry covered his shift.

“It was very difficult,” Querry said of hearing the news of

Henry’s shooting. “We were good friends and beat partners. We had a

lot of firsts together.”

Henry, whose third child was only four weeks old at the time of

the shooting, lay in the hospital for 33 days before he died. In the

days after his shooting, and then again after his death, his family,

including widow Patty Henry, and his fellow officers turned to each

other for support.

“We were drawn to his family,” said Sgt. Tom Fishbacher, a friend

of Henry. “They were just a wonderful source of support, if you could

imagine that; we’re trying to give them help and comfort and we walk

away feeling comforted by them.”

Community support for the department was also overwhelming,

Fishbacher said.

The shooting and Henry’s death hit the city hard, said Dennis

O’Neil, a City Council member at the time. It reminded people that

the public servants -- whose services many take for granted -- work a

very dangerous, unpredictable job.

“It just shook everybody to their souls,” O’Neil said. “It was

such a tragic and unnecessary and horrible loss of life of this

wonderful man with this wonderful family.”

In the years since his death, officers have gathered at 4 a.m.

every March 12 at Bob Henry Park, near where he was shot. There they

pray and tell stories about their fallen friend, Querry said.

And though he’s gone and the department has many new faces

patrolling the streets, Henry is never far from the hearts and minds

of officers, Fishbacher said.

“Bob didn’t just affect our lives, he’s had an impact on new

employees as well,” Fishbacher said. “They see the reality of the

type of work they’ve chosen. It’s not just someone in the academy

telling you what could happen; you see his picture in the briefing

room and work with people who knew him. That puts it in a very real

perspective.”