Peace Officer Memorial Day Observance, May 5

Three names of officers who died serving Riverside County
to be added to monument during ceremony in Riverside on Monday, May 5

Riverside, CA -- Riverside County law enforcement agencies and surviving family members will remember those peace officers who have died in the line of duty at a solemn ceremony at the "Safe In His Arms" memorial statue, at 4102 Orange St., in downtown Riverside, beginning promptly at 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

The ceremony, steeped in police service traditions, recognizes those who died in service prior to 2008. Names to be added to the memorial monument this year are one Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy and one U.S. Border Patrol agent, who died in the line of duty in 2007, and one long-ago Constable of Temecula who died in a century ago, in 1907, but was only recently confirmed by the multi-agency memorial committee.

Constable Preston Swanguen, 44, was shot to death on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1907, while responding to a bar fight in downtown Temecula. Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Manuel Villegas, 33, died March 19, 2007, in a head-on collision in the town of Thermal while responding to a domestic violence incident. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Richard Goldstein, 37, assigned to the Indio station, drowned May 11, 2007, in the Coachella Canal, apparently trying to save his K9 partner.

Senior law enforcement officials taking part include Master of Ceremonies Victor Greene, Chief of Investigators, Riverside County District Attorney's Office; Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco, Riverside County Sheriff Stanley Sniff, U.S. Border Patrol Deputy Chief Patrol Agency Roy Villareal, California Highway Patrol Inland Division Commander Jeff Talbot, Riverside Police Assistant Chief John De La Rosa, Cathedral City Police Chief Stan Henry and Beaumont Police Chief Frank Coe.

The names of the three individuals will join those already listed on the monument, which also honors 17 fallen Riverside County Sheriff's deputies, 14 Riverside Police officers, nine California Highway Patrol officers, five other USBP agents, two Palm Springs Police officers and one each from the Cathedral City Police Department, the Corona Police Department and the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement (see attached complete listing).

Riverside County Peace Officer Roll of Honor