Hundreds Gather To Honor Officer Who Was Gunned Down by Illegal Immigrant
Police officers from across North America gathered in a small California community on Saturday to say goodbye to one of their own who was killed by an illegal immigrant.
Newman police Officer Ronil Singh, 33, was killed early in the morning of Dec. 26 when he stopped a car on suspicion of drunk driving. The driver, an illegal immigrant named Gustavo Perez Arriaga, 32, of Mexico, has been accused of killing Singh. Officials said he was seeking to escape to Mexico when he was arrested.
Singh’s funeral was attended by more than 4,000 mourners, including representatives of more than 100 police agencies. Police from New York, Massachusetts, Canada and elsewhere attended, the Modesto Bee reported.
Funeral procession for Cpl. Ronil “Ron” Singh. Rest easy brother, we’ll take it from here #NewmanPD pic.twitter.com/VEhmSMolqn
— Fairfax Police Department_CA (@FairfaxPD) January 5, 2019
Adding a special poignance to the event was the fact that Sing himself was an immigrant to the United States who came from Fiji, according to Fox News.
“He told me he came to this country with one purpose that one purpose was to become a police officer,” tearful Newman Police Chief Randy Richardson said during the funeral service at CrossPoint Community Church in Modesto, Fox News reported in its coverage of the event.
Richardson said Singh was the kind of man who brought joy to everyone with whom he interacted.
“He wanted everyone to know that he was proud to be an American. And I looked at him and I kind of smiled a little bit and I said, ‘Then why are you wearing the American flag backwards?’ And he got kind of a blank look on his face, and he said, ‘I’m not.’ And I said, ‘You are.’ And he said, ‘But I put it on in the mirror and it looks right.’ And I said, ‘Exactly.’ And he said he has done so many interviews and nobody has ever mentioned it to him.”
Richardson said. “And it was at that moment I knew, OK, this kid is going to fit in. He will be all right.”
This morning our thoughts and prayers are with the Newman community and the family, friends, and colleagues of Corporal Ronil Singh as they lay their hero to rest.
Funeral livestream here: https://t.co/4Se4gWjb8b.
Rest easy hero.
“Greater love hath no man than this…” pic.twitter.com/QeG7xfhC8E
— Sunnyvale DPS (@SunnyvaleDPS) January 5, 2019
Serving as a police officer had been Singh’s dream in his native Fiji, where he watched American-made police dramas. He also wanted to repay his adopted country, Modesto Police Detective Ra Pouv, a friend of Singh’s, told the congregation, according to the Bee.
“Ronil was delighted with his achievement and deeply felt the Newman Police Department and Newman city was where his heart and soul was,” Pouv said.
“Ronil and I are both immigrants to a country we truly love. We both view serving our country and communities through law enforcement as important to who we are. It is our way of giving back to a country that has embraced us and our families,” he said.
Of course only @FoxNews is covering Officer Singh’s funeral. @CNNnewsroom and @alexwitt on @MSNBC don’t care when a Fijian-American legal immigrant with a wife and child is murdered by an illegal immigrant in a sanctuary state. Doesn’t fit their “illegals are victims” propaganda.
— DistD (@distd2) January 5, 2019
Modesto Police Officer Jeffrey Harmon said the incident shows the need for men like Singh.
“The world still needs peacemakers. We live in an ugly world where darkness threatens the light every day,” Harmon said. “Ronil, we honor you and we want you to know that we will continue on in your memory bringing peace to this world, just as you did to yours.”
Singh “stood so much for what is right in our world and yet unfortunately was taken too soon from us by what is wrong in our world,” Harmon said, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
He “probably more than anything else wanted to be home on Christmas night with his wife and his young son, but instead made a selfless choice to serve all of his community knowing that there are many more than just his own family that needed his protection that night.”
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