Oakland mourns 4 officers, 3/27/09

On Friday, over 20,000 citizens and law enforcement officials from around the country gathered at Oracle Arena to honor the lives of the four Oakland Police officers who were killed in the line of duty on what was the deadliest day in department history.

Sgt. Mark Dunakin, Traffic Officer John Hege, SWAT Sgt. Ervin Romans and Sgt. Daniel Sakai were gunned down this past Saturday in East Oakland by Lovelle Mixon, a 26-year old parolee who was linked to a murder in San Francisco and did not want to return to prison. Mixon first shot and killed Hege and Sgt. Dunakin after being pulled over for a routine traffic stop. After being pursued into an apartment complex by SWAT members and Oakland police, Mixon opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle, killing Sgt. Romans and leaving Sgt. Sakai brain-dead. Sakai died a day later after his organs were harvested for donation.

Some personal thoughts:

[This is an incredibly sad incident, and is the latest in a long line of fatal acts of violence Oakland has had to endure. It's indisputable that Oakland is in need of some serious financial help and bold, inspiring, intelligent leadership.

..It was absolutely despicable how people from the BART demonstrations taunted grieving police officers, saying that the killed officers represented "payback" for the Oscar Grant shooting, a completely unrelated event. Those people have no shred of decency and they make me sick. They wonder why their opinions are ignored and they never accomplish anything. Go figure.

..On a positive note, I hope this incident will lead to the re-establishment of a federal assault weapon ban (which the Bush administration allowed to expire), along with a strong enforcement mechanism.

..I understand that for many people the right to bear arms is very important, but assault weapons are a different beast. There is absolutely no need for anyone to possess weapons with that kind of destructive capacity; they are not hunting instruments or legitimate means of protection. They are made for waging war and killing people, plain and simple. Gun rights activists need to be reasonable. Their stubbornness on this issue puts our kids, law enforcement officers and citizens in danger.]

Photography via The SF Chronicle

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the slain officers and to all the families who have lost their sons and daughters in the line of duty.