November 19, 2002, will always stand out in my mind. It's a date I will never forget. It is the day Officer David Mobilio was murdered as he fueled his patrol car. We learned that Dave had been killed by a former army Ranger who wanted to make a political statement by killing a police officer. He chose Dave at random. He killed a fine human being, a fine man, a good friend, a wonderful police officer–to make a political statement.
At about 0204 hours that day, I was awakened from a sound sleep by the ringing phone. It was Dispatcher Sue Myers, "Dave Mobilio was shot and killed."
All I could say was "Holy shit." I immediately showered and suited up to go to work.
As I turned onto Main Street from Walton Avenue, near my house, I saw all the police vehicles near Tops and near Warner's fueling station. I could see the black and white police vehicle still parked at the gas station. The scene was taped off with yellow police tape.
I could see a covered body lying near the gas pumps. While I had been to many death scenes over in my career, it was horrifying, and surreal, to think that it was Dave Mobilio under the tarp. I couldn't think of it as Dave. It was too much to bear.
I began driving to each officer's home to let them know that Dave had been killed. At first it didn't seem real. Then I drove to the scene and looked across the street at Dave's body. I could see his gun lying on the pavement just a few feet from his body. I was told that he'd been shot three times–twice in the chest and once in the head.
Then it was real. I couldn't deny it any longer. It was Dave.
I returned to the business of notifying department members of Dave's death. Each time I knocked on someone's door, it became more and more difficult to say the words, "Dave Mobilio has been shot and killed." Not only was it difficult to say this to fellow officers, but their wives were usually present. Most of the wives did not react well.
At about 0800 hours, I had finished the detail and was free to return home to my family. Connie and the kids were up. My daughter Lexi had stayed home from school. Lexi knew Dave worked with me, but she also knew Dave because he was a DARE Officer and came to her school. Lexi loved Dave and she was trying so hard to be brave in her own little-girl way, but tears kept leaking out of her eyes. It darn near killed me to see her so hurt–and to think that Dave was gone.
My son, Anthony, chose to go ahead and attend school, which surprised me, since Dave had been his DARE officer. It was just his way of dealing with things. He had to keep to his schedule; it was what he held on to stay together.
First, Connie and I drove to her workplace to make arrangements for her to take the day off. As we were leaving her office, I could see that Lexi was very upset. I went to hug her and she burst into tears. When this happened Connie lost it, too. This was the beginning of a long, long week for our family and for my "family" at work.
I returned to work the next night for my first graveyard shift since Dave was killed. There had been a command post set up in the council chambers for the task force that had been set up to investigate Dave's murder. It was staffed twenty-four hours a day, and there were investigators from the California Department of Justice working there all the time. They had come up from Sacramento. Since I was the graveyard sergeant I was placed in charge of the command post.
Several times during the night I left the command post, as I needed to get away. I drove to the scene where Dave had been killed. I stood at pump number 4 and looked at all directions trying to figure out from what direction his attacker had come from. The first night I was immediately met by my coworkers, who were concerned about my safety since the suspect was still outstanding. I did this several nights in a row and was met at this location by my coworkers each time.
As the days went by we began preparing for Dave's funeral. I say we, but in reality it was many other departments and organizations that prepared for this funeral. Chico PD took the lead and made almost all the arrangements. We received food from people throughout our town and help from almost every nearby police department. The day of the funeral our department was completely staffed by officers and the dispatcher from Redding PD, Chico PD, Orland PD, and other departments. For twenty-four hours all Red Bluff police personnel were relieved of their assignments. It was a tremendous contribution on the part of those agencies.
As a member of the honor guard I attended the viewing, followed by a Catholic ceremony, then a public ceremony held at the fairgrounds and the burial service held in Chico, California.
At these four events, I and the other honor guard members carried Dave's coffin eight times. The first was the viewing held at the Catholic church the night before the Catholic ceremony. I and my fellow honor guard members drove to the mortuary to pick up Dave. We loaded the coffin into the hearse and then drove to the Catholic church. We brought the coffin up the steps into the church and up to the altar.
We were the only people inside the church at this point, when without warning, the mortician suddenly opened the coffin. I had seen many dead people in my life but nothing had prepared me to see Dave lying there wearing his police uniform. I still vividly remember the reaction of some of the honor guard members. I remember one who burst into tears and ran to the back of the church. I went to comfort him because I, too, could not look at Dave for very long. I returned to the front and saw another honor guard member touching Dave's hands in a gesture of goodbye. I also wanted to touch him and say goodbye but just couldn't get myself to do it. I looked back at the pews and saw yet another honor guard member sitting in one of the pews just rocking back and forth, becoming angrier every minute.
Once we regained our composure we went out to the church steps to await the evening's guests. I remember greeting Dave's wife, Linda, embracing her, and being unable to say anything but "I'm so sorry."
I remember her sobbing, telling us that it "hurt so bad." I can only imagine.
I can recall seeing Dave's parents kneeling in front of the coffin trying to maintain their composure. Dave's Dad was very upset and I couldn't help but wonder how my father would be reacting if it were me. People began to filter into the church, including many Red Bluff police personnel who were in uniform.
The honor guard waited around until the end of the viewing. We were to return Dave to the mortuary until the following day for the Catholic ceremony. But we did one last thing before we left. Linda wanted to keep Dave's badge (no. 7). I returned to the office and took a reserve officer badge from the commander's office and brought it back to the Church. One of our detectives removed Dave's badge and replaced it with the reserve officer badge. This was difficult as he had to stick his hand underneath Dave's shirt in order to unclasp the badge and remove it from the shirt.
The following day the honor guard returned to the mortuary and brought Dave back to the church. After the service we brought the coffin back to the mortuary. The next day we returned to the mortuary to pick up Dave again. This time a flag was draped over the coffin. Red Bluff police vehicles then escorted Dave and his family to the fairgrounds. Each Red Bluff police car was paired with an officer and his wife.
Dave's coffin was brought into the fairgrounds by a horse-drawn caisson followed by the eight members of the honor guard team. This was the beginning of a very long and emotional service.
After the ceremony we escorted Dave on his final trip to Chico, for the graveside service. Our honor guard team folded the flag draped over Dave's coffin and the chief of police presented the flag to Linda Mobilio. Chico PD's honor guard team fired did a twenty-one-gun salute.
After the graveside service we attended a reception held by Chico Police Department. We returned home at around 2200 hours. After that, Red Bluff PD personnel had their own little wake at one of the officer's homes, since we still had some free time until Red Bluff Police personnel would once again take over the city of Red Bluff.
The Ranger killer was arrested in New Hampshire on the day of Dave's funeral. He's now on Death Row in San Quentin.
Since 2002 I have been promoted a couple of times. It is part of my job now to take phone calls in the middle of the night when my staff have questions. There is rarely a night that I don't go to bed wondering whether, when I pick up the phone, I'll receive another phone call just like the one that came on November 19, 2002, and hoping I won't.
For, when the phone does ring in the middle of the night, I immediately expect the worst.