SACRAMENTO-
The California Highway Patrol has lost 225 men and women in the line of duty in its 86-year history.
Honoring their sacrifice is an annual tradition, and Tuesday, two more names were added to that list — Brian Law and Juan Gonzalez — killed on Highway 99 in Fresno last year.
“We come here every single year to remember them so their names don’t just become an inscription on a memorial, but we read them aloud every single year so we can reflect and honor their sacrifices,” CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said.
The event, while comforting to the families who have recently lost a loved one, means something different to people like Nikki Frago, who lost her husband 45 years ago on the deadliest day in CHP history.
“That’s huge to me. I think that’s the thing that impresses me the most and blesses my heart the most that, even after all these years, they remember,” Frago said. “They don’t forget. They don’t forget. People don’t forget. CHP doesn’t forget.”
Frago’s husband, along with three other CHP officers, were killed in a gun battle with two suspects in Newhall.
“It broke our hearts and I had to raise my daughter Amy and my daughter Celeste without their father and that was the worst part for me, is they didn’t have their daddy,” she said.
