Mourners pay tribute to Angelic Garcia, a Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy killed in car crash

Jennah Ward/Tribune 
By Ollie Reed Jr. Tribune reporter Tribune reporter 

     Michael Garcia will never forget the day his daughter, Angelic, told him she was dropping out of college to go into law enforcement.
     And he will never forget the dark hours early Sunday when officers from the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department came to the door of his South Valley home.
    "You look out the door and see all those police cars and you know something is wrong," Garcia said Sunday afternoon during a phone interview from his home. "They said, 'Your daughter has been in a bad accident.' And then they are taking me to the hospital with the sirens on. It is the worst feeling in the world."
     Bernalillo County Sheriff's Deputy Angelic Garcia, 26, was responding to a call to back up another deputy when her patrol car slammed into a pine tree at the intersection of Fourth Street and Ranchitos Road Northwest at about midnight Saturday.
     She was pronounced dead shortly after being transported to University Hospital.
     Garcia, a 1993 graduate of Rio Grande High School, had been with the Sheriff's Department for more than three years and had worked patrol on the graveyard shift since graduating from the department's academy. That was going to change next week.  Next week she was going to go to the East Mountains and work days," her father said. "Boy, she was happy about that."
     He said he and his wife, Vivian, worried about their daughter every day.   "She was always saying, 'Don't worry, Dad. Don't worry.' You'd tell her to be careful, and she'd say, 'I will. I will.' She would call us every morning at 6 o'clock -- me and my wife get up early -- and see how we were doing. She was always checking on us."
     On Saturday night, Garcia was on patrol when she got a call that there was a fight involving a weapon at a bar on North Fourth Street and the deputy at the scene needed assistance.
     "She had her emergency equipment on and was going north on Fourth Street," Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Roger Witt said Sunday. "Just as she went north of Ranchitos, she went off the road and hit a tree on the west side of the road."
     Witt said the cause of the accident is still under investigation. He said he did not know if Garcia was wearing her seat belt or if the patrol car's airbag had been activated.
     But Witt said the airbag may not have been a factor since the patrol car did not hit the tree head on. The point of impact appears to have been about midway on the passenger side of the vehicle.
     By early Sunday afternoon, flowers and other tributes to Garcia -- a softball, a framed group picture, votive candles -- were starting to pile up around the trunk of the tree.
     A picture of a broadly smiling Garcia in her sheriff's deputy uniform was pinned to the tree's trunk. The words around the picture read, "Angelic, we will miss you. Love, your entire family."
     Her extended family included the sheriff's department.
     Department Detective Lawrence "Larry" Tafoya, and his wife, Denise, both friends of Garcia, stood near the tree Sunday, tears clouding their eyes.
     Just a week ago this past Friday, the Tafoyas and Garcia had been part of a group of sheriff's department personnel who had gone dancing together at Albuquerque's Midnight Rodeo nightclub.
     "We had a good time," Larry Tafoya said. "Angelic loved to have fun. She was always laughing, always joking -- on duty and off duty. I don't think there was one person who didn't like her."
     Tafoya, who used to share the graveyard shift with Garcia, said that despite her fun-loving ways, Garcia was serious about her job.
     "She was a very hard worker," he said. "She respected her supervisors, and she respected her friends."
Jolyne Lujan, a dispatcher with the Sandoval County Sheriff's Department, only met Garcia once face to face. But she stopped by the tree Sunday to leave flowers anyway.
     "I met her at a workshop in Albuquerque last month," Lujan said, "but I had known her over the phone for two years."
     Lujan said Garcia would call Sandoval County to check on warrants and other matters relating to something she was working on for Bernalillo County.
     "She was friendly and easy to get along with," Lujan said. "She was very caring. She seemed like a longtime friend."
Garcia was scheduled to play second base for the Sheriff's Department softball team when it went to a co-ed softball tournament in Phoenix later this month.
     "She was an awesome softball player," Anthony Motto, Garcia's second cousin, said as he stood near the tree Sunday. "One of her nicknames was Hoover because if anything came near her, she sucked it up."
     Michael Garcia said his daughter had played Little League ball as a kid and had been a top-notch softball player at Rio Grande High.
     But he said she was a bright student, too.
     "She made me and her family proud because she was the only one who went to college," he said. "She was studying chemistry (at the University of New Mexico). And then one day she came to me and said, 'Dad, I'm going to be a cop. I'm going into the sheriff's department. It threw me off because no one in my family or my wife's family was a cop. But she was over 21, and she had made up her mind."
     Garcia said his daughter chose the sheriff's department over the Albuquerque Police Department and the New Mexico State Police because she had grown up in the South Valley and loved the area.
It is the sheriff's department that patrols the South Valley.
     "She loved that job," he said. "That was her pride and joy. She enjoyed working with the people. And we are 100 percent proud of her. She was a good person."
     Michael Garcia said Sunday that he was feeling much older than his 46 years.
     "You never figure on burying your daughter," he said. "You figure she will bury you."
     Angelic Garcia is the first Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy to die in the line of duty since Lt. William Sibrava was killed in a shootout on May 27, 1994.
     She is, however, the second sheriff's department employee to be killed in a traffic accident in less than three years.
     Mary-Margaret Sosa, a sheriff's department dispatcher, was killed in August 1998 when a pickup truck ran through a red light and struck her vehicle while she was on meal break from her duty as a a graveyard-shift emergency dispatcher.
     Funeral arrangements for Garcia have not been finalized, but Witt said she will be buried with full department honors.
     "Right now we are just trying to deal with the loss of one of our deputies," Witt said Sunday. "We are a close family. There is a lot of grief, a lot of pain."
     Witt said counseling is being provided by the department to help personnel deal with the tragedy.
     "Everybody is in a kind of shock," he said.
     Before going on duty Sunday afternoon, Sheriff's Deputy J.O. Gassel, who attended the academy with Garcia, stopped by the pine tree on Fourth Street to pay his respects. A piece of black tape on his badge signified his mourning.
     He said he is not surprised Garcia's last act in this world was an attempt to help someone else.
     "She was one of the nicest people I ever met," he said. "If you ever needed anything, she'd be right there. You didn't even have to ask."
     Gassel did not hesitate when asked what he would miss most about Garcia. He pointed to photograph pinned to the tree's trunk.
     "The smile that is on that picture," he said.

Car Crash Claims Life Of Deputy

MAR-05-2001

Dan McKay Journal Staff Writer -  Journal staff writer Katie Burford contributed to this story. 

 Mourners remember Angelic Garcia, leave mementos at tree her patrol car hit near Fourth and Ranchitos NW

Flowers, candles and shards of broken glass lay at the base of a pine tree in the North Valley on Sunday where family and friends of Angelic Garcia gathered to cry and say goodbye.

Garcia a respected and well-liked sheriff's deputy died early Sunday after her patrol car slammed into a tree near Fourth and Ranchitos NW.

Sgt. Roger Witt, a spokesman for the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department, said Garcia was responding to a call about a fight when the accident happened around midnight. She was traveling on Fourth when her car went off the road, Witt said.

Garcia was taken to University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Garcia, 25, had worked for the sheriff's department since 1997, Witt said.

"She loved her job," said Margaret "Margo" Gurule, a friend of Garcia. "She thrived on doing her job well."

Friends, family and co-workers described Garcia as a brave and honest deputy. Off duty, Garcia was known for her bright smile, friendly personality and softball skills.

Throughout Sunday afternoon, many who knew Garcia gathered at the site of the accident. Visitors prayed, wept and left mementos.

A sign with Garcia's name and photograph was attached to the tree. A softball, flowers and candles sat in a pile at the tree's base. Broken glass and plastic, apparently from the accident, also were scattered throughout the area.

Larry Tafoya, a sheriff's detective, said Garcia worked a graveyard shift in the North Valley. Garcia was respected by her peers.

"She did her job well," Tafoya said. "There's not one deputy who would hesitate to go to a call with her."

The sheriff's department is still investigating the accident. It wasn't immediately clear, Witt said, how fast Garcia was traveling though she had her patrol car's siren engaged.

A psychologist is available to help Garcia's co-workers deal with the tragedy, Witt said. Deputies also can talk it out in peer groups, he said.

Garcia's family didn't want to speak with reporters Sunday, Witt said.

Gabaldon Mortuary said it is handling the arrangements, and services are pending.

Anthony Motto, a second cousin of Garcia, said the deputy was a talented softball player. She played shortstop and earned the nicknamed "Hoover" as in the vacuum cleaner because she could scoop up every ball hit in her direction, Motto said.

Friends and co-workers said Garcia, a Rio Grande High School graduate, is survived by a brother and her parents, who live in the South Valley.

Tafoya said county sheriff's deputies are like family. He and other co-workers were close to Garcia on and off duty, he said.

"You never know when your time will come," Tafoya said. "That's why every day, you've got to tell your loved ones that you love them."

"We're brothers and sisters out here," he added.

The sign at Garcia's memorial on Fourth Street says simply, "Angelic, We will miss you Love, Your Entire Family."

 Farewell to Fallen Comrade
Friday, March 9, 2001

By Jeff Jones
Journal Staff Writer

One officer stepped into a church corridor to shed a few private tears. Deputies shared tight embraces. A bouquet of balloons rose into the chilly gray sky. And hundreds of law officers from across New Mexico on Thursday gave a solemn goodbye to Angelic Garcia. Garcia, 26, a standout Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy, died early Sunday after her patrol cruiser slid off a North Valley roadway and smashed into a tree.
Garcia, who was on her way to a call at the time, was the first sworn department member to die in the line of duty since the 1994 shooting death of a sheriff's lieutenant. She also was the first female deputy to lose her life in the history of the department. Hundreds of deputies and officers gathered at Garcia's church - the Holy Family Church in Albuquerque's South Valley - for her funeral Mass late Thursday morning. The shrill wail of sirens then rolled across the South Valley as dozens upon dozens of patrol cruisers turned on lights and sirens to start the motorcade to Mount Calvary Cemetery. The long procession stopped other traffic for several minutes and went by sheriff's headquarters in Downtown Albuquerque on its way to the cemetery.
Garcia, who had been with the department for more than two years, was not buckled in at the time of the deadly crash near Fourth and Ranchitos NW. Sheriff Joe Bowdich has said there's no way to know if a seat belt would have spared her life. Bowdich on Thursday told the standing-room crowd inside the church that Garcia received several commendations during her relatively short time with the department. "She was known as a great motivator. She was known as one who pushed those around her to do better," Bowdich said. He said he recalls talking to Garcia's training academy class and telling them never to forget they are community servants. "Angelic took this to heart," Bowdich said. "She made a difference in a very short time." "Angelic: Badge Number 118. The badge is retired," Bowdich said. "Unit 291 has made her last roll call here." Bowdich at the cemetery presented the family with the United States flag that had been draped over the young woman's casket. The tan and blue sea of deputies and officers standing around the gravesite flashed a salute as bugles echoed "Taps." An honor guard fired a 21-gun salute. And one by one, deputies, officers and other mourners placed single flowers on the white casket. "Rough day," pallbearer S.H. Covington said as the line wound its way down. Covington, a deputy who had worked alongside Garcia, said, "The greatest thing I remember about her is she was always happy. She was always smiling."
Covington said Garcia's death "helps us to realize that every day we put on a badge, we're taking a chance we (could lose) our lives." Fellow pallbearer and Deputy Aaron Wright said he worked alongside Garcia when she was stationed in the East Mountains. He said Garcia was scheduled to return to an East Mountains shift on Saturday. "Very energetic. Very motivating. But fun to keep up with," Wright said. "She always did her share. Always." Earlier in the day, Garcia's uncle, Arthur Pedroncelli, eulogized his niece as being "the rock we all depended on." "She definitely will leave a great void in our hearts," Pedroncelli said. "Thank you, Lord, for giving us this beautiful, special person we knew as Angelic."

GARCIA -- Deputy Sheriff Angelic S. Garcia, 26, a resident of  Albuquerque passed away on March 4, 2001 as a result of an accident while in the line of duty. Ms. Garcia is survived by her parents, Michael and Vivian Garcia; a brother, Michael "Mikie" Garcia; grandparents, Oralia and Paul Herrera; aunts and uncles, Esther and Ivan Castillo, David and Debbie Moya of Pueblo, Colorado, Diane Moya her Godmother, Bertha and Raymundo Apodaca, Elena and Gabriel Gurule, Felix Moya, Gilbert Moya, Evelyn and Art Pedroncelli, Manuel and Maxine Garcia , Norma and Joe Gonzales and Ray and Sarah Garcia; and many cousins and friends. She is preceded in death by her grandparents, Cresencio and Frances Moya, Abie Garcia and uncles, Augustino Garcia and Luis Garcia. Angelic was a member of the Catholic Church, served with the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Dept. since 1998, an avid softball player, a graduate of Rio Grande High School-1993, attended UNM for three and a half years, she had a big heart for children's charities and she always was first to put herself last. A Visitation will be Wednesday afternoon in the Gabaldon Memorial Chapel from 3:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. A Rosary will be recited Wednesday evening at 8:00 p.m. at Holy Family Catholic Church, 562 Atrisco SW with Visitation at the church after 7:30 p.m. Gabriella Nieto, reciting. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. at Holy Family Church with final viewing at the church after 10:30 a.m. Father Manuel Viera, Celebrant. Interment will follow at Mt. Calvary Cemetery with Honors. Pallbearers are fellow deputies, Shureke Covington, Pat Burke, Paul Chavez, Larry Tafoya, Brian Lindley and Aaron Wright. Gabaldon Mortuary, 1000 Old Coors Rd. SW in charge of the arrangements.