RON HELUS:

‘IGOTTO GO HANDLE A CALL.’

Ventura County sheriff ’s Sgt. Ron Helus was talking to his wife when calls started coming in about a shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill.

“Hey, I got to go handle a call. I love you. I’ll talk to you later,” he told her, according to Sheriff Geoff Dean.

It was the last time she would talk to her husband.

Helus rushed toward the shooting and immediately exchanged fire with the shooter inside the bar, Dean said. Helus was hit multiple times and died at a hospital.

Sgt. Eric Buschow, who said Helus was a friend, described the 29-year veteran as a “cop’s cop.”

“The fact that he was the first in the door doesn’t surprise me at all,” he said. “He’s just one of those guys that wouldn’t hesitate in a situation.”

Helus took up fly fishing a few years ago and loved pursuing the hobby in the Sierra Nevada mountains with his grown son, Buschow said.

“He was just a great guy, a gentle soul,” Buschow said. “Patient. Calm no matter what. When you call 911, he’s one of the guys you want showing up.”

Thousands lined streets and many others pulled over to honour the fallen officer during a sombre 40-kilometre procession that took Helus’s body from a hospital to a coroner’s office.

Dean choked back tears talking about Helus and called him a hero.

“He went in there to save people and paid the ultimate price,” he said.