One group of heroes paused to say “thank you” to another.
“It’s funny watching these guys who are usually very outgoing and gregarious,” said Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Weise as former and current Los Angeles players and broadcaster made their way up to say hello on Friday, Feb. 3. “They’re so subdued when they are standing around these Dodgers players. It’s their heroes.”
Many in the community have added the police officers and firefighters to their list of heroes in the aftermath of the brutal attack on a group of seniors at the Star Dance Studio two weeks ago. The Dodgers organization sent a collection of its men in Blue to say thank you to the first responders as well as offer their support to family members struggling to recover from the tragedy.
“It’s incredibly nice for them to honor our cops and firefighters and I really appreciate it,” said Weise, who’d only been at the helm of the department for a few days when the call for the mass shooting came in Saturday night, Jan. 21.
Dodgers Hall of Fame Spanish language play-by-play announcer Jaime Jarrin was among the group that placed a wreath outside the mammoth memorial outside Monterey Park City Hall and paused to offer encouragement to first-responders and family members on the day Valentino Alvero was memorialized at a funeral not far away at St. Stephen Martyr Catholic Church.
“We just wanted to tell the families that we are behind them 100 percent,” said the retired Dodgers announcer.
Not far away, former Dodgers pitching great Fernando Valenzuela passed by the sprawling tribute, which honors the 11 people killed in the attack. Nine others were hurt. Two weeks later, the motive is still unknown.
“We hope the people of Monterey Park are able to find some peace in their lives,” said infielder Miguel Vargas. “We’re just here to some them some support.”
“It was such a terrible tragedy,” said pitcher Andre Jackson. “Anything we can do to help put smiles…
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