By Linda Goldston
KNIGHT RIDDER
Related Officer Down report
He didn’t have to take that call on New Year’s Eve about a motorist stuck in the mud alongside Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
California Highway Patrol Lt. Michael Walker was a supervisor, but “he chose to get in a patrol car, to work the beat that night,” said CHP Officer Debbie Bratby, who worked with Walker for the last seven months in the Santa Cruz area.
Throughout his 24-year career with the highway patrol, Walker “wouldn’t assign you to do a task he wouldn’t do himself,” said CHP Officer Braulio Mendieta, who worked with Walker in the agency’s Golden Gate division.
And that night it cost him his life.
Bratby and Mendieta were just two of hundreds of officers from six states who came to pay their respects to Walker at his memorial service Friday. More than 1,600 people packed the Mission Church in Vacaville, where Walker lived with his wife, Michelle, and two young daughters, Amanda and Jennifer.
He was killed while setting flares along the highway south of Glenwood Drive when a car plowed into a parked Caltrans truck, which rammed into the officer. The car’s driver also was killed.
The young officers who were next in line to take that call “keep saying ‘It should have been us,’” Bratby said. “But Mike’s wife pulled them aside at the rosary, hugged them like they were sons and let them know it wasn’t their fault.”
In numerous testimonials about Walker, those kinds of themes kept emerging -- his passion for his work serving and protecting the public, his respect for his colleagues and his love and devotion to his wife and two daughters.
“He was a dedicated public servant, a road dog and a leader,” CHP Commissioner Mike Brown said during the service.
A native of San Francisco, Walker grew up in Daly City and entered the CHP Academy in 1981. Before being assigned to the Santa Cruz area seven months ago, Walker had worked out of the agency’s Golden Gate office in Vallejo.
His wife did not speak at the service. But in a statement read by a relative, she said Walker “brought so many gifts to his family, friends and work relationships.”
“I was so blessed to have him in my life for 121/2 years. Whatever was happening in our lives, not a day, a moment passed that we doubted Mike’s love.”
Walker, she said, was the first to say he was falling in love after they met and ended every phone call by saying, “I love you.”
“He brought laughter and love to us in a million different ways.”
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED
A memorial fund has been established for Walker’s daughters. Donations may be made by sending checks payable to the Lt. Mike Walker Memorial Fund, c/o Comerica Bank, 30 Rancho Del Mar Shopping Center, Aptos, CA 95003, or c/o California Highway Patrol, 10395 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA 95003.