Yahoo Movies ‘We are broken’: Elk Grove holds vigil for police officer Tyler Lenehan, killed in crash
They gathered around the flagpole, clutching candles in a chill wind outside Elk Grove’s council chambers Friday night to say goodbye to Ty.
Elk Grove Police motor officer Tyler Lenehan was on his way to work early Friday, wearing the city’s police blues aboard his patrol motorcycle, when a wrong-way driver slammed into him on Highway 99 minutes from the Elk Grove city limits.
The six-year Elk Grove veteran who only last year received his dream assignment as a motor officer, died a short time later. Lenehan, an Air Force veteran who previously served with the Citrus Heights and Galt police departments, is the first Elk Grove officer to die in the line of duty.
“Today is a very sad day for our community. We are heartbroken. We are devastated,” said Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen flanked by city and community leaders.
Lenehan leaves behind a wife, two sons and a department and community gutted by the loss. The driver is in Sacramento County custody suspected of felony driving under the influence after California Highway Patrol officers found him walking away from his wrecked car and Lenehan’s crumpled motorcycle.
“We are broken,” Elk Grove Police Chief Timothy Albright told the crowd of about 100 who gathered at a tear-stained candlelight vigil for the fallen motor officer. “We’re broken as a profession, as an organization and as a community. But this is what makes Elk Grove Elk Grove,” the chief continued, scanning the crowd. “You show up. You mourn with us. I want to lift up the Lenehan family as you do, but I want to finish with this: The way you help Elk Grove police heal is this — the support. We yearn for it.”
Raw feeling dominated as city leaders and residents alike grappled with the officer’s death. Elk Grove city councilman Kevin Spease strained to contain his emotions.
“This was entirely senseless,” Spease said, his voice rising. “A father, going to work, doing his job. It breaks my heart. I want to thank Ty Lenehan for his service to the city of Elk Grove and I want to thank the family he left behind this morning to go to work.”
City Councilwoman Stephanie Nguyen, whose husband is an Elk Grove police officer and a former motor officer, spoke through her tears of Lenehan’s family and the fears she faces as an officer’s wife. Those fears, Nguyen said, were realized Friday morning.
“There are two little boys the same age as my two little girls and share with them that their father is not coming home tonight,” Nguyen said. “As a wife of an officer, I can tell you that I wake up every morning in fear that my husband will not come home and that every wife has the same fear. What has happened today is a nightmare that has become a reality.”
Jeff Alley and his wife Nicole of Elk Grove were among the crowd who gathered at the vigil. Alley was on his way to work on Highway 99 and drove past the fatal wreck. Only later did he learn who was involved.
“It was a few hours later that I learned it was an Elk Grove police officer,” he said. “Then I hear on television Chief Albright say he died of his injuries. My son’s going into law enforcement, so it feels like it’s part of the family.”
Alley looked around at the crowd and thought about his son who he said hopes to join his hometown’s police force. A Sacramento Sheriff’s helicopter hovered overhead shining its flood lamps over the ceremony.
“Elk Grove was a small town and it has kept its small-town community feel. There’s a love of community that people are still holding onto,” Alley said. “There’s a lot of people who showed up tonight. It’s pretty heartwarming.”
In the moment, Elk Grove was a small town again, neighbors holding candles, gathering to remember, promising not to forget.
Tyler Lenehan, Elk Grove motor officer, husband, father, friend, was gone and a town’s heart Friday night was broken.
