Friday, Aug. 5, 2016 | 3:07 p.m.
EL CAJON, Calif. — Hundreds of law enforcement vehicles and motorcycles escorted a hearse Friday to a final memorial service for Jonathan De Guzman, a San Diego police officer who was fatally shot in the driver's seat of his patrol car after his partner approached a man on the street.
Burial was to follow the second service in two days for the decorated 16-year veteran of the force who worked on an anti-gang unit.
Gov. Jerry Brown planned to attend the memorial following the procession of 200 uniformed motor officers and 600 police cars from San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium to Shadow Mountain Community Church in suburban El Cajon.
The megachurch, which holds up to 4,100 people, was expected to be at capacity. About 1,000 San Diego police officers and 1,000 officers from other agencies from as far away as New York were expected, Sgt. Lisa McKean said.
A smaller crowd mourned De Guzman, 43, Thursday at his family church in Bonita, the small suburb where he was to be buried. Uniformed police officers from as far as Chicago, New York, Aurora, Colorado, and Fort Worth, Texas, packed Corpus Christi Catholic Church for the 90-minute Mass.
De Guzman's family, which includes a wife and two children, appeared "very touched and moved," said the Rev. Efrain Bautista, the church pastor.
"They are a very spiritual Catholic family, so they were able to be engaged in the entire rituals that we as Catholics have," Bautista told reporters.
"It's a tough situation but I think that our hope and our trust must be in God," he said.
De Guzman died in the shooting July 28 after being struck five times. Officer Wade Irwin, 32, was shot in the throat but was expected to recover.
Jesse Gomez, a construction worker with a criminal record stretching back to 1983, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of murder and attempted murder from his hospital room. He is recovering from wounds he received in a gunbattle with police.
Prosecutors say the two officers pulled up to Gomez, who was on foot, and Irwin got out of the patrol car to ask if he lived in the area. Gomez, 52, is accused of shooting Irwin and then going to an open passenger door to fire several times into the car, killing De Guzman. After being shot, Irwin fired back as Gomez fled, prosecutors said.
Police have yet to determine a motive.
De Guzman died 13 years after surviving a stabbing on duty, for which he received the department's purple heart. He was stabbed in the right arm in 2003 after pulling over a driver for speeding. He shot the attacker in the hip after the man tried to stab him again.
In 2013, De Guzman was one of five officers who shot and killed a man who was wanted for a violent attack on the man's father and raised a shotgun at officers in suburban Escondido. Prosecutors found the shooting was justified.
Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat contributed to this report.
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