LAPD officer memorialized
LOS ANGELES – Randal Simmons, the city’s first SWAT officer slain in the line of duty, was remembered Friday as a deeply religious family man who went above and beyond the duties of a good cop, dedicating his life to protecting others as well as helping poor children escape inner-city streets.
Thousands of police officers, some from across the country and overseas, filled the 10,000-seat Crenshaw Christian Center Faithdome to near capacity. Another SWAT officer wounded in the same shooting managed to attend with Simmons’ family, along with numerous officials.
“My brother was a protector because he thought about others before he thought of himself,” said his sister, Gina Davis, trying to hold back tears.
The service, the largest in recent memory for a fallen police officer, was televised live in Los Angeles for more than six hours.
Simmons, 51, known as “the rock” and “the reverend” by his colleagues, had been with the city’s elite SWAT unit for 20 years and had the second-longest tenure of anyone on the team first formed in 1967.
His death was all the more stunning to colleagues, they said, because they saw their physically imposing, highly professional fellow officer as all but invincible.
Simmons looked like he’d been chiseled from ivory, former partner James Hart told mourners, and was so imposing that often when he approached a crime suspect the person, startled, would say to himself, “Jesus Christ!”
“I’d look at them and say, ‘Not quite,’ ” Hart recalled with a laugh.
Mourners included Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former police chiefs Daryl Gates and Bernard Parks (now a councilman) and the SWAT officers who were with Simmons when he was shot in a standoff on Feb. 7 with a man who called 911 and said he had killed three family members. A police sniper later killed the gunman.
Police Chief William Bratton told SWAT officers that Simmons “understood and appreciated your desperate efforts to save him.”
As a police officer, Simmons “feared no evil” because he knew God was with him, Bratton said.
Among the pallbearers was Officer Tim McCarthy, a six-year veteran of the unit who was trained by Simmons.
“He was a super-solid guy. He touched a lot of people on duty and off-duty,” McCarthy said before the funeral. “How can I sum it up? One of our boys took a hit.”
Many speakers said Simmons was known for going beyond the call of duty.
“They called him a deacon for a reason,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. “He mentored at-risk kids, he led Sunday school on the sidewalks, he drove toys for kids at Christmas time.”
Simmons was described as a man of deep faith who had been a minister for 13 years. He worked tirelessly to reach out to children, taking kids from South Los Angeles on trips to the country. One project he led in 2007 provided gifts to hundreds of children and their families.
A number of children wore T-shirts bearing Simmons’ picture and the words, “Our Hero.”
Simmons was also recalled as a football fanatic who had played cornerback for the Washington State University football team in the late 1970s and kept in close touch with many of his teammates.
After the service, Mike Washington, who played for WSU, remembered his former teammate as a fun-loving guy who was always checking on the well-being of those around him.
For Washington and several other Cougars the funeral was the first time they’d seen each other in many years, former player James Matthews said.
“He’s one person everybody would want to know,” Matthews said.
Simmons’ body was escorted from the church by dozens of motorcycle officers in a motorcade that wound through South Los Angeles for hours. Hundreds of police cars followed the route, which was lined in places with residents.
Simmons’ casket was taken to the gravesite as the sun set over Holy Cross Cemetery.
He was honored with rifle volleys and a four-helicopter flyover as fellow officers saluted. Bagpipes wailed and officers folded the flag from his casket and presented it to his son.
Simmons was shot as a SWAT team entered the home of Edwin Rivera, 20, who had called 911 the night of Feb. 7 and said he killed his father and two brothers.
Fellow SWAT Officer James Veenstra was shot in the jaw before the team retreated under heavy fire. Veenstra, still recovering, attended the service with his police captain wife.
The case is still under investigation, but Police Commission Inspector General Andre Birotte has said preliminary information gave no hint of problems with police actions that day.
Villaraigosa acknowledged the grief that has swept through the LAPD.
“We know that the central story of this department has never been written in consent decrees or the reports of inspectors general,” the mayor said. “It’s written in the footprints of thousands of cops like Randy Simmons who go out there and risk everything – everything – every day for the rest of us.”
Simmons is survived by his wife, Lisa; son Matthew and daughter Gabriella.