Hundreds pay tribute to police officers killed in line of duty
Memorial in Santa Fe honors law enforcement members who died serving New Mexico
Don Archuleta carried his sport coat over one arm as he walked into the New Mexico Law Enforcement building in Santa Fe on Wednesday morning. Printed on the back of his long-sleeve shirt were two images of his grandson, James. One shows James balanced on the front wheel of his grandfather’s red motorcycle. In the other, James, dressed in a police uniform, holds a small boy.
Lettering on the shirt read, “In loving memory of James Archuleta.”
Archuleta, a state patrolman from Española and an Iraq veteran, died 11 years ago in a June car accident while responding to a call to investigate a shooting. He was 27. Every year since his death, members of the Archuleta family have come to Santa Fe to honor his memory during the New Mexico Department of Public Safety’s Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony.
Inside the building, Don Archuleta was handed a white rose and instructed to walk down a dark hallway to an outdoor courtyard. Hundreds of white chairs had been set out on a grassy lawn in front of a granite memorial where James Archuleta’s name is one of 206 engraved in stone. Each name is that of an officer lost in the line of duty.
H.L. Lovato, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said the state installed the memorial in 1983 and that year held the first documented ceremony to honor fallen officers.
It is a solemn event at which families, members of the state’s law enforcement community
and others pay tribute. Amid wreaths of flowers, words of remembrance are uttered. Each year, new names are added to the stone marker. A number of gray name lines remain empty, waiting to be filled.
Nationwide, 135 officers died in the line of duty in 2016, a 10 percent increase over the previous year, and the most violent year since 2011, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. In New Mexico, 14 officers have died in the past six years, according to the Department of Public Safety.
“We will be here every year until they stop doing it,” said Veronica Archuleta, who was James Archuleta’s fiancée at the time of his
death and is the mother of his son, Jesse-James, now 12.
Rolanda Cowboy held a white rose on her lap in honor of her uncle, Alex Yazzie, a Navajo Nation officer shot during a car chase in 2015. She said they grew up together and he felt like her brother.
“I am here to show my support and let people know that they are not alone,” she said. “We miss him every day.”
Roughly 300 people were present at Wednesday’s ceremony. While many family members said they attend each year, for a few in the crowd Wednesday, it was the first time they
had a reason to visit the courtyard and see a loved one’s name etched in the granite.
Officer Jose Chavez, 33, of the Hatch Police Department; Officer Clint Corvinus, 33, of the Alamogordo Police Department; and Deputy Ryan Thomas, 30, of the Valencia County Sheriff ’s Office all died while on duty last year, all in the last six months of 2016.
Relatives of these fallen officers were escorted into the ceremony by law enforcement officers in near-perfect silence.
Chavez had been with the Hatch Police Department for two years when a passenger in a vehicle he had pulled over Aug. 12 opened fire during the stop. Chavez died from his wounds at the University Medical Center in El Paso.
Less than a month later, during a Sept. 2 traffic stop in Alamogordo, Corvinus encountered Joseph Moreno, a man with a skull tattoo stretched along his jaw and a warrant for his arrest. During an exchange of gunfire, both Corvinus and Moreno were shot and killed on the street.
Corvinus’ parents and his 8-year-old daughter accepted an American flag during Wednesday’s ceremony.
“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself,” said Stephan Marshall, director of the Law Enforcement Academy, quoting the writer Joseph Campbell. “People die for many reasons — these people died for us.”
The last group escorted into the ceremony was led by Thomas’ widow, Joyce, who held her 5-month-old son, Maximus, in her arms. She was eight months pregnant on Dec. 6, when Thomas overturned his vehicle while responding to a police call and was thrown from the car. The couple also had a 2-year-old daughter.
More than 20 wreaths were ceremonially set in place, one by one, each a collection of red, white and blue flowers, to represent different law enforcement agencies in the state.
The final wreath was placed on the center podium by Gov. Susana Martinez. She placed it above an arrangement of shiny black boots, a badge and an officer’s cap.
The U.S. and New Mexico flags hung at half-mast.
Martinez was joined by her husband and a number of other state officials, including Department of Public Safety Secretary Scott Weaver and Attorney General Hector Balderas.
“I am so grateful for what you have given the state of New Mexico,” she told the audience.
The governor last year had cited the shootings of Chavez and Corvinus, as well as the murder of a child in Albuquerque, as reasons to reintroduce the death penalty in New Mexico, which she unsuccessfully sought during a special session of the Legislature last fall.
Jay Frey, 71, a retired police officer from Los Angeles, representing the International Police Association of New Mexico, told The New Mexican that honoring fallen officers is especially important now, “with all of the incidents of police being attacked for just doing their job.”
The ceremony concluded with a seven-gun salute, a successive round of blanks fired over the crowd, followed by a rendition of “Amazing Grace” played on the bagpipes.
Overhead, three law enforcement helicopters flew across the bright blue sky, circling the site as people stood to watch the aerial procession.
Jesse-James Archuleta, in a small, fitted suit and plaid blue tie, stood with his grandmother Cecelia, intently watching the helicopters.
It was his 10th time attending the ceremony, most years with a photograph of his father pinned to his suit. In photographs, the two look increasingly similar, with the same wide blue eyes and tuft of black hair.
“It’s just to honor him,” the 12-year-old said. “And every other officer. They put their lives on the line so we can be safe.”
His mother, Veronica, said, “This is his legacy.”
Jesse-James said he wants to join the FBI when he grows up.