The insanity never ends...
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A letter written by the brother of a Sheriff Deputy, that was brutally murdered by another illegal alien.
On April 29, 2002 my brother, Deputy Dave March, was killed while making a traffic stop in Irwindale. Dave was executed by Armando Garcia, a drug dealer from Mexico. Garcia had been deported from the United States three times prior to Dave’s murder.
At the time of Dave’s murder, Garcia was wanted for two other attempted murders. Little did we know that while we were mourning the loss of Dave, Garcia was making a beeline to Mexico, where he knew he could escape from justice in the United States.
Before Dave was killed, we had no idea that anyone with even a trace of Mexican blood could commit serious crimes in the U.S. and avoid our justice system simply by crossing the border into Mexico. Mexico will not extradite murderers, rapists or any other criminals facing a life sentence or the death penalty in the United States. We just wanted Dave’s killer back; we didn’t care that there were insane extradition treaties between the United States and Mexico.
In the months after Dave’s death, we met other wonderful families that were in the same situation. Many of them had been fighting our government for years on this extradition issue.
Dave dying is something none of us imagined could ever happen. When I first found out, I was at the pediatrician with my son, Jake. My husband, Kimo called me on my cell phone and asked for our neighbor’s phone number. I could tell that Kimo was upset about something, so I asked him if everything was OK. He started crying and told me that Dave had been shot.
My immediate thought was that Dave, being a member of our clumsy family, probably shot himself in the foot. I asked Kimo if Dave was OK, but he didn’t know. All he knew was that Dave was at Huntington Memorial Hospital. Before getting off the phone, I assured Kimo that Dave was fine and he told me that he would call as soon as he heard anything.
Kimo felt helpless because he was stuck in San Diego at a training seminar. As I was getting off the phone with Kimo, the doctor came in to see Jake. He could tell that I was upset about something and asked if I wanted to postpone Jake’s appointment. I told him to go ahead because there was nothing I could do just yet (I didn’t have any idea where the hospital was, and I was sure that Dave was fine.)
The doctor left the room to get the nurse and I called my mom to let her know what had happened. When I told her that Dave had been shot, she screamed "OH NO, OH NO, OH NO". I quickly stopped her and told her that he was probably fine and that he was at Huntington Memorial Hospital. I told her that I would call her with any details from Kimo. Unfortunately, my mom was in Lake Arrowhead, so she had no way to get to the hospital quickly. She was in a hurry to get off the phone because she wanted to call my Dad, who was working in San Dimas.
As I was waiting for the nurse to show up to give Jake his shots, my cell phone rang. I had no idea that my whole life was about to be turned completely upside down. I answered the phone; it was my mom crying. The first words out of her mouth were "Erin…..Dave is dead". I couldn’t believe my ears. What did she mean by "dead"?? I instantly went into hysterics, and all I could do was try to convince myself that he wasn’t really dead. I kept repeating to my mom "No, he’s not dead Mom…he’s not dead". I asked her if she was able to reach my dad. As she bawled, she told me that he knew and that telling him that Dave was gone was the hardest thing she ever had to do. My mom was crying in a way that I had never heard before. The sound of her crying on the phone will never leave my ears. In fact, that entire phone call will haunt me forever.
A minute later, the nurse came in the room to give Jake his shots. When the nurse saw that I was crying, she immediately came over and held me as if she were my mother. Even though I barely knew her, her embrace was just what I needed at that moment. When I told her what had happened, she held me even tighter and just let me cry on her shoulder for a few minutes. While Jake was getting his shots, I must have received about ten phone calls from Kimo, his sister Malia, my parents, etc. Things were completely chaotic and no one knew what to do. Kimo didn’t want me driving in my condition, so he was trying to arrange for someone to pick me up. At the same time he was frantically trying to figure out how he was going to get back from San Diego quickly. My mom was in the same dilemma. Fortunately, my dad was not too far away and a work friend of his drove him to the hospital.
I felt like I had been sitting in the doctor’s office for about a century when finally two investigators from the DA’s Office picked me up. Jake and I sat in the back of the car and as we sat in traffic, I felt numb. I couldn’t believe this was really happening. As we got closer to the hospital, I started to feel sick to my stomach. My stomach has never been able to handle stress very well; how on earth was my body going to handle this?? When we arrived at the hospital, there were cop cars everywhere. As we pulled around to the emergency entrance, I was overcome with emotion.
I was quickly escorted into the hospital, while the two investigators watched Jake. As I looked around at all the people, this horrible nightmare started to become real to me. The first two people I recognized were our good friends Faisal and Anette. I was so relieved to see them. Immediately, they both put their arms around me and held me as we all cried. A few minutes later, I saw my dad. We both broke down crying and he walked me into the room where the family was gathered. My dad was trying so hard to be strong for the family, but I could tell he was completely devastated. The wonderful son that they raised was now gone.
Sheriff Lee Baca was in the room with grief counselors and some other people from the sheriff’s department. I looked around the room and saw Dave’s wife Teri sitting next to her mother crying. None of us could fathom this awful situation. It didn’t seem real. As we all sat in this room, Sheriff Baca explained witness accounts of what had happened to Dave and that deputies were trying to track down the killer. He also told us that both of Dave’s gunshot injuries were fatal. I was relieved to know that Dave didn’t suffer.
As reality continued to sink in, I started to feel dizzy and sick to my stomach. To keep from getting worse, I kept repeating in my head "this isn’t really happening…this isn’t really happening…". The denial strategy didn’t work. I was hoping that my mom and Kimo would arrive soon. I was worried about them both and I didn’t know how my mom was going to hold up through all of this.
After we had been at the hospital for about an hour, my mom and Kimo finally arrived. I was so glad to see them, but I was also worried about how they would handle this overwhelming situation. My mom seemed to be in a trance. I think she was in a state of denial. How on earth do you accept that your son has just been killed??? As for Kimo, he just lost his brother-in-law and one of his best friends. I knew this would be extremely difficult for him.
As time went on, I felt sicker and sicker. Kimo helped me to the bathroom, and I started throwing up. I felt like I was going to faint. My emotions and physical sickness were too much for me to handle. I was so weak. I just wanted someone to put me to sleep. How is it possible that Dave is dead? I wanted to escape from this whole nightmare. Finally, I reached a point where my body just shut down. I couldn’t talk to anyone. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t respond to anything the people around me were saying. My body found a way to shut it all out. Before I knew it, I was being admitted to the hospital. Immediately, I was given an IV of glucose in an effort to raise my blood sugar levels. I just sat there in the hospital bed staring into space. Someone could have been standing right next to me and I wouldn’t have known it.
Just as quickly as I sunk into this zombie-like state, I was snapped out of it by the sound of Jake screaming. He needed me. My maternal instinct seemed to take over and I knew that I had to snap out of it and take care of my baby. Kimo brought Jake to me, and I started nursing him. As I watched him nurse, I started to feel better. Jake was just the miracle I needed to pull myself together. To this day, I don’t know how I would have made it through this chaos without both my boys (Kimo and Jake).
Meanwhile my parents and Teri were going through their own nightmares. I felt bad that I couldn’t be there for them at the hospital. Luckily, numbness carried them through that day. It wasn’t until later, months later, that things truly sunk in with my parents. As the numbness wore off, and reality sunk in, my mom struggled through each day. Some days things seemed hopeless and other days actually seemed happy. The first few times we smiled or laughed after Dave was gone brought feelings of guilt followed by renewed sadness. Eventually, we realized that it is OK to smile and laugh. I realized that Dave would kick our butts if we all just sat around moping all the time.
Things really turned around for me when I started having dreams about Dave. In most of the dreams, Dave would tell me in his own silly ways that he was just fine. In one dream, he said, "I am fine. Don’t worry about me. Tell everyone that I am fine." I like to think that Dave was really visiting me in those dreams. He seemed so real. How could my mind have just made these dreams up?? In fact, we have all had our own special dreams about Dave. Reliving these dreams and sharing them with each other is like actually having another precious day with Dave.
Back in reality, we are all trying desperately to define our lives without Dave. Unfortunately, our family will never be able to move on until Armando Garcia is caught and brought back to the United States. We have all been fighting to change the laws that keep us from justice.
So far, everyone I have talked to about this issue (including Hispanic families since they are the ones most often victimized) has become enraged. People can’t believe that in the United States, there are laws in place that threaten the safety of innocent people. Murderers, rapists and other violent criminals no longer have to be held accountable for their actions. To add insult to injury, these criminals can come and go as they please, back and forth from Mexico to the United States and back to Mexico.
As long as they can beat the cops to the border, they can live a nice long life in Mexico free from punishment. As good, hard working, tax paying Americans, we need to let our government know that this is not acceptable! For fear of losing voters, most politicians won’t touch this issue; we need to force them to. Maybe if people get mad enough to do something, my family and hundreds of other families will finally get the justice we deserve for the murders of our loved ones.
"Rome wasn't destroyed by barbarians storming the gates. It was destroyed by barbarians who walked through the gates peacefully to enjoy the benefits of Rome."
Ronald Khol