Hundreds gather to watch memorial procession for Palm Springs officers
The families of fallen officers Gil Vega and Lesley Zerebny, and the Palm Springs Police Department, have been getting support from all over the state and the country in this difficult time.
Tuesday, it was seen again with hundreds of people lining the roadways to pay their respects and to watch the memorial procession pass by. Parts of the Coachella Valley were left at a standstill in honor of two of the desert’s finest.
Residents first lined the streets near the intersection of Sunrise Way and Ramon Road Tuesday morning, just outside the Mizel Senior Center where both motorcades passed by. Zerebny’s traveling from her hometown of Hemet. Vega’s from a nearby funeral home.
“I saw Officer Zerebny’s first on the other street,” said onlooker Suzzane Spencer, who stepped out of her office inside the Center to watch the memorial procession just after 9 a.m. “I saw 10, 20, 30 cities all participating in her procession from Hemet. I saw Officer Vega’s just now. It was beautiful.”
One of the officers was known quite well at the center.
“Gil is a friend of the Mizel Senior Center,” said Ian Murray. “He used to come and Wii bowl with our seniors.”
A few blocks away, outside the Palm Springs Convention Center where the memorial took place, there was more support. One high school teacher took the day off and was planted outside with a large American flag attached to a flag pole.
“I teach at Cathedral City High School and I got a substitute today just so I could show my support,” said Lee Wilson Jr.
There was also a group of 75 students from an elementary school down the street who showed up with handmade signs, the product of a homework assignment.
“I just wanted to give them experience,” said teacher and chaperone Robyn Harmon. “We’ve had some discussions about it and now they get the chance to really feel it.”
After the ceremony in Indio, people waited hours in the sun and heat just to pay one final tribute to Officer Vega, cheering on the hearse as it passed just before 4 p.m., carrying the hometown hero’s body to its final resting place down the street.
