In Memory of Officer Shane Figueroa

So this past weekend we were in AZ with my family for the funeral of my cousin Shane. He was killed while on duty last Saturday, October 25,2008. So we came down for the funeral. It's the most tragic story how he was killed. We wanted to tell a little about the funeral and pay our tribute to him.

Shane was responding to a call while on duty and was hit by a drunk driver. He died on the scene. The driver's passenger was also injured and taken to the hospital, while the driver was just fine. He was an illegal in the USA who had been deported 4 times before. He also has previous warrants for his arrest because of past DUI's. The driver is now in our jail and will be tried there in AZ.

Shane left behind his wife Melisha, his 3mo old daughter Kinzlie, and his 2 brothers, sister, and mom and dad.

The viewing was held on Friday evening. It was well attended. We got there right as it started and the place was already full. By the time we left a line was forming out side. And later on the news they showed the line even longer outside. Shane was dressed in his police uniform and there were many officers there to support the family and Shane. Next to his casket were 2 officers who were there almost as to guard it. They stood like the guards out side Buckingham Palace. They didn't move, fidget, or anything. They even did a changing of the guard sort of thing when it was someone else's turn to stand guard. The flowers were donated by many different precincts and groups from across the valley. It was very impressive to see the love and respect that the officers show one of their fallen.

The funeral was Saturday Nov 1st. It was held at the Red mountain Institute building so the place was pretty big. There were literally hundreds of officers there to support Shane's family. We are estimating that there were close to 2000 people in attendance. While bringing the casket into the chapel, a lone bag pipe led the way playing. It was hushed in the room and the officers all had their hands over their hearts. The family was led in following the casket. There were tons of people there as family so we didn't all fit in the chapel, they had to set up extra rows of chairs and some had to sit in the back. My family was lucky enough to get a bench in the chapel so we were close enough to see.

After the opening prayer the governor of AZ, Janet Nepolitano, presented Melisha with a plaque in honor of Shane. The mayor of Phoenix spoke, along with Shane's Sergent squad leader, and a fellow officer from his squad. The life sketch was given by his brother Austin and he did an awesome job at portraying who Shane was. My favorite part was the letter he read at the end. It was Melisha's comments on the past few years she has spent with Shane. From her letter, even written during a time of great pain, you can tell the love she and Shane shared. It was wonderful to hear that and it makes you stop to think about what your spouse would say about you.

After the rest of the meeting the processional to the cemetery started. We were led by hundreds of police motorcycles, cars, firetrucks, and ambulances. They blocked off the 202 West freeway for about 10 miles while we drove down it slowly. We got to the cemetery and there were literally 3 streets packed of police cars and trucks lined on both sides of the street and one row packed of police motorcycles. At the grave site there were all the police officers lined up in rows all around in a huge 3 sided square. It was really the most impressive thing I have seen. They did the whole ceremony for their fallen officer including the bag pipe band, 21 gun shoot, and helicopter fly over. The helicopter part was what got most people crying. 5 helicopters flew over the site and then paged in to the speakers that were set up and did a final farewell to Shane reporting the this as the end of his last call to duty. It got some of the officers next to us crying as well.

I don't really know how to explain the whole ceremony that the officers put on but it was very impressive and amazing to see the respect they show a fallen brother officer. I was hoping I could find some video of news reporting some of it (this story has been on the news all last week) but I couldn't find anything showing what I wanted. So you will just have to trust me that it was one of the most amazing things I have seen.

Shane's fellow officers said that he was one of the most courageous people they had met. He was the one who always caught the bad guys and was always in the right place at the right time. Shane had just been awarded the medal of Valor, the highest award that and officer can receive, for a previous incident. He was also Officer of the month for the whole Phoenix police dept. They all feel blessed to have been able to work with Shane.
Austin described Shane as a quiet observer. He would pay attention and listen, and then do what needed to be done. From the letter that Melisha wrote you could tell that their baby daughter Kinzlie was Shane's world. He would brag about her to his fellow officers and was just the proudest father. She also said that every day he would make some comment about how lucky he was to have married her and about how beautiful she was.

Shane was a great person. We will certainly miss him here and we pray for his family that they will be able to turn to the gospel in this time of need.