Community remembers Indio officer who died on this day last year
One year ago today, Indio Police Officer Isabel “Izzy” Velasquez passed away after a “short but brave” battle with a rare form of lung cancer. She was just 26 years old.
The Indio Police Department took to social media to remember Officer Velasquez.
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Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia adjourned the Assembly session today in honor of Velasquez.
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“It was my privilege to adjourn Assembly session in her memory. Our #AD56Community misses her tremendously, may her smile never fade from our hearts,” Garcia wrote.
According to her obituary, Velasquez was born in South El Monte, California. Her family later moved to Indio where she attended middle and high school, participating in the cadet corps, softball, and music. She went on to attend College of the Desert and joined the U.S. Army Reserve at 19 where she worked as a logistics specialist.
After six years in the Army Reserve and a stint as a public safety officer at Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino, she “fulfilled her dream” of becoming a police officer when the Indio Police Department hired her on July 7, 2016.
“We were shaken to our core to learn of her unexpected passing. Officer Velasquez was a beautiful soul with an infectious smile. Her IPD family will miss her greatly,” An IPD spokesperson wrote in a statement after Velasquez’s death last year.
A week after Velasquez passed, her family used excess donations that were raised to pay for funeral expenses for a billboard memorializing her along eastbound Interstate 10, near Jefferson Street.
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Velasquez is survived by her parents, Alejandro Velasquez Sr., and Mercedes Garibay, her siblings, Alejandro Velasquez, Jr., and Esther Velasquez, nieces and nephews, her beloved Leah, her longest love Flex and her extended family in California, Peru, and Mexico.
