By Julia Prodis Sulek
KNIGHT RIDDER
The voice on Officer Richard May’s squad car radio was unfamiliar at first. It wasn’t Richard May’s; he had just radioed headquarters minutes earlier to say he was trailing a suspect from a fight at a nearby taqueria.
The voice was that of a kid, no older than a teenager.
“Man down!” the voice said, a bit high, but firm. “Man down!”
It took another instant for East Palo Alto Police Sgt. Alma Zamora, the watch commander in charge late Saturday afternoon, to recognize the voice. It was that of a 16-year-old Boy Scout Explorer, who was out for a ride-along with May. The boy was sitting in the front seat of May’s squad car, Zamora realized, with a gunman on the loose.
“At that point, we couldn’t get there fast enough,” Zamora said in an interview Tuesday.
Zamora jumped in her patrol car and sped just one block away to University Avenue and Weeks Street. As she rounded the corner, she caught a glimpse of the boy, tall and thin, talking to a policeman who responded to the scene.
“It was almost a relief,” she said, “until I saw the officer.”
May, 38, a mentor in the Explorers program who Zamora said had an especially close relationship with the boy who accompanied him that afternoon, lay lifeless on the pavement. He had been shot at least twice, including once in the head, police say. The crime was caught on tape from a security camera at a nearby building.
The suspect, 22-year-old Alberto Alvarez, was caught early Sunday morning with a gunshot wound to the leg. He was arraigned Tuesday on a murder charge.
Police won’t identify the boy, who they worry could be in danger from the suspect’s fellow gang members. He is a key witness.
It was just getting dark Saturday when Zamora secured the crime scene and approached the boy. Zamora knew him well; she is the police department’s adviser to the Explorers program, which mentors teenagers who want to pursue law enforcement careers.
“Are you all right?” Zamora asked.
“I’m fine,” he said.
But Zamora knew he wasn’t.
He didn’t cry. But he was distraught. “You could see it in his eyes,” she said.
For the past few days, the boy has burrowed into the briefing room of the East Palo Alto police department, talking and grieving with the close-knit members of the 42-officer department. He’s been meeting with a grief counselor, and his fellow Explorers have come in to see how he’s doing.
On Tuesday afternoon, before school was over for the day, he called the police department and said he was upset, having a hard time with it all. An officer, another mentor in the Explorers program, drove out to comfort him.
“He saw other officers shed tears,” Zamora said. “It’s OK to cry.”
Zamora remembers the first time she met with the boy two years ago. He was just 14. And unlike most candidates, the boy came to the interview with his mother. She asked if her son could be put in danger.
“In law enforcement,” Zamora said, “there’s always danger.”
But the boy’s mother agreed to let him participate. Her son was smart, respectful, a good athlete.
“She knew it was positive,” Zamora said of the mother. “Instead of being at home, he would be out doing something.”
Along with nine other kids in the East Palo Alto Explorers program, the boy volunteered at police headquarters, answering phones and doing clerical work. He learned some law enforcement basics, memorizing police codes, practicing how to direct traffic at parades and festivals. He also learned how to use a police radio.
For every eight hours the boy volunteered, he earned a four-hour ride-along. Almost every time, the boy would ask to accompany May.
And the officer always obliged, Zamora said. “I could just see May cared about him.”
May took special interest in the Explorers program, Zamora said. “He was very patient with them. He answered their questions fully. He was a great role model.”
And on that fatal Saturday, May knew how to protect the boy.
When Zamora arrived on the scene, she could see his squad car parked well ahead of the crime scene. May had driven past the suspect so the Explorer wouldn’t get caught up in any altercation.
“He knew he had to get him out of danger’s way,” Zamora said.
The details are still sketchy. But police say it all started with a call from Villa Taqueria on University Avenue. A fight had broken out inside. One of those involved was walking away.
“I’m in the area and I see someone walking away,” Zamora recalled May saying on the radio.
“Are you in pursuit?” the dispatcher asked, with Zamora listening in.
“No,” May said, “but I am following in my vehicle.”
The next thing Zamora heard was the young voice, calling “Man down.”
“Please, God, no,” Zamora thought. But it was too late.
The last few days have been a blur of investigations, tears, and flowers. Preparations are being made for the memorial service for May, the father of three daughters, at noon Thursday in San Jose’s HP Pavilion.
In the midst of it all, the boy told Zamora he still wants to continue with the program. “He doesn’t want to leave,” Zamora said.
The officers are keeping in close contact with the boy every day, “watching him to make sure he gets what he needs,” she said.
“He grieves with us,” she said. “Hopefully we can all heal together.”