Jonathan Diaz's wife mourns him as two Lemoore Police officers stand guard beside Diaz's casket preceding his memorial service on the evening November 14, 2019. Police officers will stand guard throughout the night in church and at the Diaz home. Fallen officers are never left alone

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Laying a Good Cop to Rest

Richard Street | California, United States

I first met Jonathan Diaz in 2015, when he was a rookie cop in the Huron, CA police department. I was 25 yearrs into a long-term phographic and submergence journalism study of Huron.

Diaz was a resident of Huron. By becoming a cop, Diaz lost the friendships of many in a town where the police department is despised, no one offers eye witness testimny, and two gangs, the Nortenos and Bulldogs, regularily shoot one another and intimidate witnesses.

Diaz was a good cop, polite and cheerful. In 2016 Diaz was hired at the nearby Lemoore Police Department, where he received many honors for public service. In 2018 he was named Public Safety Officer of the Year.

On November 2, 2019, while off-duty at a birthday party on the outskirtts of nearby Hanford, Diaz intervened in a domsetic dispute as Ramiro Trevino Jr. tried to beat and choke his pregant girlfriend. Ramiro Trevino Jr. shot Diaz, murdered his own father, Ramiro Trevino Sr., and then shot himself in the head..

Diaz was 31 years old, He leaves behind a wife and three children.

My coverage of Jonatan Diaz's memorial and funeral was the least I could do for a good cop who had the world in front of him.

The Police Officers Research Association's "Fund a Hero" program has set up a program to benefit the Jonathan Diaz Memorial Fund at:

porac.org .

See Richard Steven Street, "The Mean Streets of Huron" and "Death Shines of Huron" for context.

and  stories by Cresencio R delgado and Carmen George. Fresno Bee, November 3, 6, 15, 2019.

web site: streetshots.org

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