By Rosalio Ahumada
The Sacramento Bee
COLUSA COUNTY, Calif. — Caltrans officials on Thursday unveiled road signs for Officer Natalie Corona Memorial Highway in Arbuckle, the hometown of the Davis police officer gunned down as her law enforcement career was just beginning.
A crew installed the northbound and southbound road signs along a 5-mile stretch of Interstate 5 in Colusa County, Caltrans announced on Twitter.
This stretch of I-5, from Greenbay Road to Salt Creek Drive in Colusa County passing through Arbuckle, was dedicated to honor Corona by a concurrent resolution passed in July 2019. The resolution was introduced by Assembly Member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D- Winters, whose district included parts of Colusa County.
Corona was a 22-year-old “rising star” in the Davis Police Department, who had completed her field training just a few weeks before she was shot and killed by an armed suspect. Police Chief Darren Pytel has described the fatal shooting as an indiscriminate “ambush” that occurred on the evening of Jan. 10, 2019, near 5th and D streets in downtown Davis.
The officer was responding to a minor traffic collision when a gunman approached the area on bicycle, fatally shot Corona, opened fire on vehicles and homes in the surrounding area, then took his own life.
Authorities identified Kevin Douglas Limbaugh, 48, as the man who fatally shot Corona that night. Limbaugh was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head in his nearby home. No one else was injured in the shooting.
The Davis Police Department in January 2020 unveiled a memorial to honor Corona and another of its fallen officers, Douglas Cantrill, who was 23 years old when he died September 1959 after being shot by his own service weapon.
In February 2019, the Sacramento Police Department named a new helicopter after Corona. A Yolobus that was struck during the shooting was also rededicated and named in Corona’s honor.
Corona was awarded a posthumous Purple Heart, as well as several other honors, including one named after Douglas Cantrell.
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