Ceremony Honors Slain Officer

They came in uniforms and jeans, some wearing badges while others wore baseball caps.

Hundreds of people including police officers, city officials, community members and schoolchildren gathered at the Hollenbeck Division on 1st Street in remembrance of Los Angeles Police Department Officer Steve Gajda, the first Hollenbeck officer to die in the line of duty since 1969.

Poems, proclamations, songs and sympathy marked a tree-planting ceremony and fund-raiser held in honor of the gregarious Gajda, who was shot and killed while on patrol New Year’s Eve.

“Steve was a hero--hard-working and tenacious,” said Mayor Richard Riordan. “There’s no more fitting memorial than this tree we’re about to plant. It will live on for many decades and is a symbol of life.”

Riordan, Hollenbeck Capt. Richard Gonzalez, Gajda’s former partner Cesar Ramirez and members of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps helped lower an 8-foot ficus tree into the ground in front of the station, as Gajda’s widow, Belinda, watched. Children from nearby 2nd Street Elementary School grabbed shovels and helped pack the soil.

Students from St. Mary’s School sang the Mariah Carey hit “Hero” to a weeping Belinda Gajda, who received a comforting hug from newfound friend Jennifer Parish. Parish’s fiance, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Shayne York, was killed last August in Orange County while off duty. The 24-year-old Parish, herself a sheriff’s deputy, has forged a friendship with 29-year-old Belinda.

“She knows what I’ve been through,” said Belinda after the ceremony, wearing her husband’s wedding ring on a chain around her neck. “I guess you could say we cradle and comfort each other.”

Gajda’s partners shot and killed his assailant seconds after he shot Gajda. The officer was a member of Hollenbeck’s CRASH unit, a special gang enforcement team. Former partner Ramirez said Gajda’s death was a wake-up call.

“This incident has made me think a lot about why we become police officers, and how far we’re willing to go for our community and for our society,” he said quietly. “But it’s great to be here with all these people. . . . It brings back memories of great times that we all shared.”

Poems and letters written by 2nd Street students were posted on the wall of the station. The sheets of notebook paper were decorated with crayon drawings of trees and rainbows, flowers and hearts. One short note signed simply by “Jesus” said, “I feel sad about the police officer being shot, when I walk by Hollenbeck Police Department and see the tree I will remember that he gave his life.”

Riordan presented Belinda Gajda with a proclamation from the city, honoring her husband for his bravery and service. Representatives of Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre, county Supervisor Gloria Molina and Assembly Speaker-designate Antonio Villaraigosa also presented certificates and resolutions honoring Gajda’s memory.

Capt. Gonzalez gave Belinda a plaque naming Gajda as Officer of the Quarter for the last three months of 1997. The inscription ended with, “Go forward, forward--even unto death. Sleep well bro, you are always with us.” The widow said she wasn’t too surprised by the outpouring of love and affection for her late husband. “Knowing Steve and the kind of person he was . . . it was hard not to love him,” she said. Still, looking into those schoolchildren’s faces was heartbreaking, she said.

“Steve and I had been trying to have a baby for about five months,” she said. “Now I’ll never know what our children would have looked like.”