News

First Palm Springs Police Memorial Ride honors fallen officers

Published October 15, 2017 1:09 AM

Motorcycle riders gathered Saturday morning for the first annual Palm Springs police Memorial Ride. Less than a week ago the community came together to remember the lives of police officers Lesley Zerebny and Jose “Gil” Vega on the anniversary of their deaths. Saturday they continue to be remembered.

Michael Morris, who was a police officer for 13 years, said it’s important to honor the memory of those lost in the line of duty.

“Any time you hear about a fallen officer it always touches home,” Morris said.

A sea of bikes covered the parking lot at Palm Springs Motorsports.

“The police officers give us freedom and protect us and service. And this is the only way we have help them is to support them,” Lee Chandrasena, owner of Palm Springs Motorsports, said.

Organizers planning to make this an annual event. Riders headed down Indian Canyon to their first stop, the Palm Springs Police Department.

“Having it this time of year it just helps us remember what Gil and Lesley did for the community and for the law enforcement profession. And it’s a tremendous show of support for us and we know the families appreciate it,” Joe Cook president of the Palm Springs Police Officers Association said.

The mayor and police chief expressed their gratitude for the crowds in attendance. Both Zerebny and Vega were not far from their minds.

“You have someone with 37 years in our profession losing his life weeks before his retirement. And you have a 27-year-old just starting her profession, who had just came back to work after giving birth to her daughter Cora,” Chief Bryan Reyes said.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/AllePierce/status/919241969938739200″,”author_name”:”Alle Pierce”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/AllePierce”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; motorcycle riders ready to head out on the first annual &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/PSPD?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#PSPD&#lt;/a&#gt; memorial ride &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/sjKfFORsPZ”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/sjKfFORsPZ&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Alle Pierce (@AllePierce) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/AllePierce/status/919241969938739200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;October 14, 2017&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

Proceeds from Saturday’s ride will go to the Palm Springs Police Memorial Fund which provides financial support to families of officers killed in the line of duty.

Last Sunday marked the one year since Officers Lesley Zerebny and Jose “Gil” Vega were gunned down on Oct. 8, 2016, while they were answering a domestic call in Palm Springs.

John Hernandez Felix, 27, is accused of opening fire on the officers after they responded to a family disturbance call at his home in the 2700 block of Cypress Avenue.

Vega had been with the department for 35 years — five years past his retirement eligibility — and had planned to finish his career last December. Zerebny had been with the department for a year and a half and had just returned to duty from maternity leave after the birth of a daughter four months before her death.

You can view our full special “In the Line of Duty: One Year Later” right here.

On Sunday, the annual softball game between Palm Springs police officers and firefighters will be renamed after slain Palm Springs Officer Lesley Zerebny.

The inaugural Lesley Zerebny Memorial Softball game will be held on Oct. 15 at Big League Dreams Sports Park in Cathedral City.

Members of the Palm Springs Police Officer’s and Professional Firefighter’s associations will face off, with ticket proceeds going to the Palm Springs Police Officer’s Memorial Fund. Tickets will be $5, according to the police officer’s association.