FALLEN OFFICERS
JIM JENSEN
OFFICER
JIM O’BRIEN
OFFICER
JOHN ADAIR
SENIOR OFFICER
FREDRICK CLARK
OFFICER
ALBERT GASPERETTI
OFFICER
WILLIAM E. KELLEY
CONSTABLE
AGE: 30
TOUR: 4 years
CAUSE: Gunfire
E.O.W: March 13, 1996
Officer James Jensen was shot and killed by friendly fire during a high risk warrant service. The agency's tactical team was serving a warrant on a house where three heavily armed drug-ring leaders were believed to be located.
Another officer, whose vision was obscured as the result of smoke from a Light, Sound Diversionary Device (LSDD), mistook Officer Jensen for an armed suspect and opened fire on him with a shotgun. He was transported to a local hospital where he died a short time later.
Officer Jensen had served with the Oxnard Police Department for 4 years. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
-Source: Officer Down Memorial Page
AGE: 35
TOUR: 9 years
CAUSE: Gunfire
E.O.W: December 2, 1993
Officer O'Brien was shot and killed by a man who had shot seven people, killing three of them during a shooting spree at an unemployment office. Officer O'Brien was shot with a deer rifle as he pursued the man near Olivas Park Drive and Victoria Avenue in Ventura by an unemployed computer engineer.
Officer O'Brien had served with the agency for 9 years. He was survived by his wife, daughter, son, mother, brother and three sisters.
-Source: Officer Down Memorial Page
AGE: 31
TOUR: ?
CAUSE: Gunfire
E.O.W: October 7, 1980
Officer Adair was shot and killed while responding to a domestic dispute. Despite being mortally wounded, Officer Adair, and his partner, were able to return fire and killed the suspect.
Officer Adair's wife was on a ride along with him at the time and witnessed the shooting.
Officer Adair was survived by his wife and two children. One of his children, Kevin Adair, later became an Oxnard police officer.
-Source: Officer Down Memorial Page
AGE: 28
TOUR: 2 years, 3 months
CAUSE: Gunfire
E.O.W: October 12, 1971
Officer Frederick J. Clark was born in Orange, New Jersey, on August 23, 1943. He moved to the San Fernando area in 1946 with his family. He attended and graduated from Birmingham High School, Van Nuys, California. He attended Los Angeles Pierce College in Los Angeles, California, and he was presently enrolled in classes at Ventura College.
Prior to accepting a position with the Oxnard Police Department, Officer Clark had been employed by Hughes Markets from 1960 to 1969. At this time, he accepted a position as a police officer with the City of Oxnard.
During the time he was with the Oxnard Police Department, Officer Clark made many contributions and achievements, including graduation from the Ventura College Police Academy, Drivers Training certificates from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Operation and Use of Breathalyzer, and First Aid from the National Red Cross. Officer Clark received certificates from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for Chemical Agents Training, Law Enforcement Officers Training School in Contemporary Police Problems at Moorpark College for Urban Warfare Institute, from the National Safety Council for participation in the Defensive Driving Schools, and from the Peace Officers Standards and Training for completion of required courses for Police Officers.
In the twenty-seven months that Officer Clark served the community, he received numerous letters of commendation from citizens praising his fairness, alertness and humanity. He had been chosen as one of the Department's representatives at the "Rap Sessions" held in the Colonia area earlier in the year.
He was always held in high esteem by his fellow officers who continually commended his willingness and sincerity in helping others.
Officer Clark will be deeply missed, not only by his wife, daughter, family, friends, and fellow officers, but also by the community for which he gave his life to serve and protect.
AGE: 43
TOUR: N/A
CAUSE: Automobile Accident
E.O.W: April 15, 1956
Officer Albert Gasperetti was killed in an automobile accident while on duty.
-Source: Officer Down Memorial Page
AGE: 58
TOUR: 13 years
CAUSE: Gunfire
E.O.W: August 20, 1921
The first person appointed as Oxnard’s Police Chief upon the incorporation of the city in June 1903 was Samuel P. Lowe. He served for about six months, with the collateral assignment as tax collector. Lowe was succeeded by William Reno in 1903. Reno is actually considered the first Oxnard chief because Samuel Lowe agreed to take the job until someone could be hired to take over. Reno served as chief until 1907.
It was during Reno’s tenure that the first Oxnard Police Officer (known as constables) was killed in the line of duty. That was Andrew McNaughton in 1906. Unable to attract anyone to become police officers in the city, Reno resigned in 1907 and operated a “fix-it” shop in the area of Fifth and C streets.
William E. Kelley was hired as an Oxnard police officer in 1907, serving under then-chief William Reno. When Reno resigned, Kelley was appointed Chief.
If police officers could be awarded medals for bravery and heroic actions like the military, Chief Kelley would have earned at least three Purple Hearts. He was shot three different times over the course of his career a police officer.
In the 1891, while serving as a police officer in Minnesota, Chief Kelley was first wounded in the line of duty. While escorting a prisoner to jail, the prisoner suddenly produced a gun and shot Kelley in the leg. Kelley pulled his gun and killed the prisoner, shooting him four times before the prisoner hit the ground.
In 1914, he and three officers were sitting in a cigar store in the area of Third and A streets when a person came in, drew a revolver and shot Kelley and two of the other officers. New accounts of the day stated “In spite of a bullet wound two inches from his heart, Kelley sprang up and seized the would-be murderer and marched him off to jail after disarming him.
This year marks the 103rd anniversary of the death of Oxnard Constable Andrew McNaughton, the first Oxnard officer to lose his life in the line of duty. The sheriff would eventually bring McNaughton’s killer to justice. Remarkably, that same sheriff would make the ultimate sacrifice alongside the next Oxnard officer to be killed some 15 years later.
The year was 1904. Oxnard was a Wild West kind of town and it had no lack of problems. Incorporated just a year earlier, the most infamous part of Oxnard was known as the Tenderloin District — the area immediately surrounding Seventh and A streets. It was part of the old Chinatown settlement where opium dens, outlaws and saloons ruled.
Knowing he could not protect this burgeoning town of 2,000 people on his own, city Marshal William Reno hired four deputy constables to assist him. Among the four was Andrew Murray McNaughton.
McNaughton was originally from New York. He moved to Oxnard to work at the American Sugar Beet Factory. He was 42, married and had four small children. Reno lured McNaughton away from the sugar factory with a hefty monthly salary of $75.
It was 1906. Marshal Reno and his men were a terror to the gambling and opium dens in Chinatown and they were making a collective impact on crime and disorder. But, during the night hours of March 16, Deputy Constable McNaughton was shot and killed while on foot patrol in China Alley. According to the Ventura Free Press, the precursor to the Ventura County Star:
“Mr. McNaughton had been active in following law-breakers among the gamblers and the residents of the half-world and it is thought he met his death at the hands of several men in a gang who were surprised in looting a pool room.
The untimely and shocking death of Mr. McNaughton at once plunged the town into a furor of excitement and caused an energetic crusade against vice by the city and county officials.”
“Andrew had been selected for the position of night watchman and deputy constable for his bravery, fearlessness and strength. He had been particularly vigilant and had incurred the enmity of the lawless element and the desperadoes made frequent threats about putting him out of the way.”
It would take three years before Ventura County Sheriff Edmund Guy McMartin captured the killer of McNaughton. Again, quoting the Ventura Free Press:
“Ever since the murder of the Oxnard officer, Sheriff McMartin has never for a day, forgotten that somewhere (the killer of McNaughton) skulked and sneaked from the scrutiny of all men, evading the recognitions that would accomplish his capture and land him behind bars.”
In 1907, a new Oxnard city marshal rode into town. His name was William E. Kelley, a police officer originally from Minneapolis, Minn., and he came to be one of the great lawmen on the West Coast.
In 1921, Sheriff McMartin and Marshal Kelley teamed up to serve an arrest warrant on a fugitive in Owensmouth, the area now known as Canoga Park. As the lawmen approached the fugitive’s home, gunfire erupted and both McMartin and Kelley were fatally wounded. After shooting the two lawmen, the suspect fled into a nearby bean field pursued by some 100 ranchers and citizens. When the posse finally came upon him, it was found he had shot and killed himself.
Hundreds of people turned out for the funerals of the sheriff and the marshal, just as they had for Deputy Constable McNaughton. Kelley was laid to rest in the mausoleum at Oxnard’s Santa Clara Cemetery.
AGE: 43
TOUR: 2 years
CAUSE: Gunfire
E.O.W: March 17, 1906
Night Watchman Andrew McNaughton was shot and killed while attempting to arrest three men in a Japanese pool hall in the red light district. One of the men during a struggle with the three stuck a pistol in his ear and fired. His body was found in an alley behind the pool hall the following morning. One suspect was arrested days later. On November 1, 1909, another suspect was arrested in Los Angeles. He gave the location of the third suspect, also the gunman, who was arrested four days later in El Paso, Texas.
Two trials for murder of the first suspect ended with hung juries. With new information from the other two, he was to be tried a third time. He went insane and was committed in Patton Asylum where he died on February 18, 1915. In March of 1910 the gunman was convicted of murder and sentenced to life. He was paroled on March 24, 1925. No trial information could be found concerning the third suspect, but he was expected to get off light because he gave the police a lot of information.
-Source: Officer Down Memorial Page