FORT BRAGG, Calif. (AP) - More than 2,000 people braved fierce rain to honor a veteran Mendocino County sheriff’s deputy who was shot and killed by an Oregon man during a crime spree that began in Eugene a week ago.
The memorial service for Ricky Del Fiorentino started at dawn Wednesday with hundreds of patrol cars making a solemn 58-mile procession from the county seat of Ukiah to a school auditorium in Fort Bragg where the overflow crowd spilled into the gym and a tent outside.
The 48-year-old deputy had worked on the North Coast for 26 years, first as a Fort Bragg police officer and then for the sheriff’s department.
Ricardo Chaney, the 32-year-old suspect accused of killing Del Fiorentino and a retired University of Oregon anthropology instructor in Eugene last week, was shot to death by a Fort Bragg officer.
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