By Mary O’KEEFE
On Sunday runners with a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s escort ran down Foothill Boulevard as part of the L.A. County Department 2010 Memorial Peace Officers’ Run. The annual event is in honor of peace officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

“This is the 41st year of the run,” said Sgt. Scott Gibson of the CV Sheriff’s Station.

The relay race began on Friday at Monterey Park, concluding at the Altadena station. Runners carried a torch for the race that stretches about 300 miles.  This year CV runners consisting of sheriff personnel had a slight change in their original path due to the Station Fire.

The traditional path was through an area of the Angeles Crest that was still closed at the time of the race. The runners began at the Monte Cristo campground at mile marker 15.30 then down the ‘Crest to Big Tujunga.

“We carried the torch 25 miles,” Gibson said.

There were numerous volunteers and deputies who were there for support and about 15 runners. Normally the T-shirts worn by participants listed the names of those officers killed, but this year fortunately there were no new names.

“So our shirts had the names of all the deputies that were killed in the line of duty since 1857. We ran for them all,” Gibson added.

He has participated in the run for many years. In addition to running for all peace officers he has his own personal reason.

“I run for Deputy Jake Kuredjian who was killed on Aug. 31, 2001 in Santa Clarita. He was my partner,” Gibson explained.

Jake was a 17 year veteran of the L.A. County Sheriffs Department and had been assigned to the Santa Clarita station since 1995. He was shot and killed in the line of duty while assisting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms during the service of a search warrant in Stevenson Ranch. He was 40 years old, according to the Santa Clarita Station website.

Gibson said there are a lot of stops along the relay path dedicated to honor those peace officers, any L.A. County officers who have died in the line of duty.

The run ended at Altadena and the torch was transported to the Sheriff’s Academy at Star Center in Whittier. Closing ceremonies were held there on Wednesday.

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