Hundreds of police officers in California sadly paid their last respects to Fernando Arroyos, the 27-year-old Los Angeles Police Officer who died tragically in a shootout with some gang members who attacked him as he was house hunting with his girlfriend last month.
Arroyos’ funeral took place on Wednesday morning before he was laid to rest at the Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills cemetery.
Describing the slain cop, LAPD Lt. Rex Ingram said Arroyos was a “bright, shining star of hope” and a role model for his fellow officers and children to emulate.
“You were a product of your community who represented the best of the diverse melting pot we call home in Los Angeles,” Ingram, Arroyos’ watch commander, said during a eulogy. “You stood tall, defending life and liberty so that everyone else could live their American Dream.”
Arroyos had graduated from both Crenshaw High School and the University of California- Berkeley with honors and had a dream of becoming a police officer, FOX 11 Los Angeles reported. He joined the Los Angeles police force in 2018.
“We’ve lost an angel in this City of Angels,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said at the funeral. “God has called Fernando home.”
Arroyos was shot and killed while off-duty in “a senseless act of violence,” the Los Angeles Police Department said. Three suspected gang members and a woman have been arrested for shooting Arroyos during an attempted robbery on Jan. 10. The suspects are facing federal charges for their crimes.
The suspects have been identified as 29-year-old Luis Alfredo De La Rosa Rios, 22-year-old Ernesto Cisneros, 34-year-old Jesse Contreras, and Rios’ girlfriend Haylee Marie Grisham, 18. If convicted on federal racketeering charges, the four suspects could face the death penalty. The minimum sentence would be life imprisonment without parole.
Rios and Cisneros held Arroyos and his girlfriend up at gunpoint during a robbery before an exchange of gunfire.
Arroyos was hit once and died at the hospital. Cisneros also suffered gun wounds, according to federal prosecutors, who said they obtained video footage from the crime scene that shows Contreras helping him exit a black pickup truck linked to the crime.
