Members of CV Sheriff’s Station take part in three-day run.

By Mary O’KEEFE

This past weekend members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. (LASD) participated in the annual Memorial Torch Relay. This is a three-day run with 56 legs of the relay that covers over 300 miles.

The three-day event began at 9 a.m. on May 17 and ended on May 19 about 4 p.m. at the Altadena Sheriff’s Station.

Runners from the CV Sheriff’s Station took the torch from Palmdale at mile marker 15 on Angeles Crest Highway. The first 16 miles of the relay was run by the LASD elite running team, led by CV Station’s Dep. John Hong who brought deputy elite runner friends to help. At mile marker 16 members of the Montrose Search and Rescue ran the remainder of the 21-mile stretch.

“This is a 49-year tradition by the LASD to honor our LA County fallen brothers and sisters in the line of duty. We run and move the Memorial Torch from the Hall of Administration to Altadena Sheriff’s Station. There is no fee to participate beyond love, respect, commitment and sweat equity,” according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Athletic Association.

This year’s run was dedicated to Dep. Ryan Clinkunbroomer and police officer Chad Swanson, who was from the Manhattan Beach Police Dept. (MBPD).

Sgt. Johanna Armstrong from the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station ran the relay, representing the station. She said this relay was even more poignant because the CV Station took the torch from the Palmdale Sheriff’s station where Clinkunbroomer had served.

The honor to take the torch from the Palmdale Station was poignant for Sgt. John Gilbert from the CV Station.

“It meant a lot to former alumni from Palmdale. I was there for 10 years,” he said. “It is still a special place to the deputies who worked there.”

Dep. Clinkunbroomer was murdered on Sept. 16, 2023 as he left the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station. He was in uniform in a marked patrol vehicle. (On Sept. 18, 2023 Kevin Cataneo Salazar, 29, was arrested, accused of lying in wait and murdering the deputy. He is still in custody and his next court date is on June 13, 2024.)

“Our son Ryan was a dedicated, hard-working deputy sheriff who enjoyed working here at the Palmdale Station. He was proud to work alongside his partners that he considered brothers and sisters. He sacrificed daily to better the community that he served. Ryan made the ultimate sacrifice in doing so. Ryan was recently engaged to the love of his life. As our firstborn son, Ryan will be greatly missed by his family, friends and the sheriff’s department as a whole. Please keep Ryan’s family friends and colleagues in your prayers and respect everyone’s privacy during our time of mourning. Thank you from the bottom of my heart the Clinkunbroomer family.” – Statement from the Clinkunbroomer family released by LASD at the time of the deputy’s death.

On Oct. 4, 2023 MBPD Officer Swanson was killed while on his way to work in a motorcycle accident on the 405 Freeway at Del Amo Avenue. A vehicle struck Swanson’s department motorcycle after another vehicle made an unsafe lane change. The impact threw Swanson off his motorcycle.

The LASD Memorial Torch Relay began in 1975 after a dramatic increase was seen in the number of deputies killed in the line of duty.

“From 1850 when LA County was first formed until the beginning of 1970, less than 300 law enforcement officers from agencies throughout the county had been killed in the line of duty. In the early 1970s, there was a dramatic increase of the number of officers killed. In just a five-year period, between 1970 and early 1975, 12 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies were killed in the line of duty. During one traffic stop in 1970, four CHP officers were all killed by just two suspects,” according to “Lighting the First Flame” by Dep. Chris Miller [retired] LA Sheriff’s Museum.

In 1975 Sgt. Lee Stahl wanted to honor those fallen deputies and wanted to raise public awareness of the loss. His idea came from the Olympic Torch Run. That first year there were 24 runners who ran 291 miles.