Slain officer ‘a natural leader’
Woman, 26, who grew up in East Bay, was killed during domestic disturbance call
A Sacramento police officer killed in the line of duty Wednesday night grew up in the East Bay suburbs and left a legacy with departments there that belied her 26 years.
Tara O’Sullivan grew up in Pleasant Hill and Martinez and never hid her desire to wear the badge, not as a rookie officer in Sacramento nor as a teen getting her first experience in those cities’ police explorer programs, according to other officers who worked with her.
“It was her life,” O’Sullivan’s mentor, Martinez police Officer Fred Ferrer said Thursday. “She enjoyed going out there and making a difference, and she did make a difference. We’re heartbroken.”
O’Sullivan was shot Wednesday evening while responding to a domestic disturbance call in the northern part of the city. She lay wounded while the gunman fired on officers, and died after being rescued and transported to a hospital.
O’Sullivan had been an officer for just six months after completing the police academy and was still in training, Sacramento police said Thursday.
“We are devastated,” Sacramento Deputy Chief Dave Peletta said. “There are no words to convey the depth of sadness we feel or how heartbroken we are for the family of our young, brave officer.”
Police said Thursday afternoon that they had arrested 45-year- old Adel Sambrano Ramos on suspicion of unspecified charges relating to O’Sullivan’s killing.
Flags at the state Capitol flew at half staff Thursday following O’Sullivan’s death.
“Officer O’Sullivan represented the best of what we hope to be as human beings in her selfless service to the community and readiness to help those in need,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “She knew the dangers of the job, yet chose to dedicate herself at such a young age to those values anyway.”
According to police, O’Sullivan arrived at a home in the 200 block of Redwood Avenue around 5:41 p.m. to help a woman move some belongings out of a residence. Six hours earlier, police received a call from the same woman regarding a domestic disturbance on Esperanza Drive, they said.
Twenty minutes into O’Sullivan’s arrival, shots rang out, and she was hit, police said. The gunman fired several times for several hours with what police believe to be a type of rifle, and police said that kept officers from getting O’Sul l ivan help until an armored tank arrived at 6:54 p.m., almost 45 minutes after the gunfire hit her.
An ambulance took O’Sullivan to UC Davis Medical Center just before 7 p.m., and she died there.
“To Tara’s parents and family, and Tara’s fellow officers, I am so sorry,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement. “As a father I am grieving with you. As mayor of the city she swore to protect, our city is heartbroken and we are here for you every step of the way.”
O’Sullivan attended Sacramento State after graduating from College Park High in Pleasant Hill in 2011 and was hired by the Sacramento Police Department in January 2019 as a community service officer. In July of that year, she entered the department’s police academy as a police recruit. She graduated in December.
It was a life path that seemed inevitable to those who knew her.
“She was 15 years old when she came in, and she became very passionate about it,” Ferrer said of O’Sullivan’s time in the Martinez Police Department’s explorers program. “She was a natural leader, vibrant, personable. She was great with kids and in any community gathering, but she was fearless, too. … It was deep down in her.”
Pleasant Hill Lt. Scott Vermillion worked in investigations during the time that O’Sullivan was in that department’s explorer program, but said several of the officers who worked with her are still with the force and are now trying to cope with news of the loss.
“They’re dealing with this tragic news; it’s still fresh — it’s surreal and it’s hard to handle,” Vermillion said. “This is very tragic and upsetting for us. Our hearts go out to the O’Sullivan family and the Sacramento Police Department as well.”
O’Sullivan also left a mark on the soccer field while growing up, playing on youth teams in Pleasant Hill and for the Falcons. Her love for that pursuit came across in an invitational alumni soccer game she played in shortly after graduating high school.
“I still remember that and how happy she was,” Ferrer said. “It was wet and rainy, and she was so stoked about getting a chance to play soccer in the rain. She thought it was so cool to be playing against high school kids, even though she was basically just out of high school herself.”
Five different officers fired back at the gunman, police said. All have been placed on paid administrative leave, per Sacramento police policy. All five have been with the department between three and five years, police said.
O’Sullivan became the first Sacramento police officer to be killed in the line of duty since 1999 when Officer William Bean Jr. was shot after responding to a traffic stop.
She’s also the second College Park High grad to die as an officer in the line of duty. Pittsburg Police Department Officer Larry E. Lasater lost his life while trying to arrest two robbery suspects in 2005.
Lasater’s mother, Phyllis Loya, said O’Sullivan’s killing hit close to home. She added that while she did not know O’Sullivan personally, the families have mutual friends.
“Any time you hear of an officer going down, it brings back what that family has gone through before,” she said. “We feel enormous pain for the officer’s family that is just beginning that grief journey because we know how hard that is going to be.”
O’Sullivan’s parents, who public records still list as living in Martinez, were not available for comment Thursday.