In Memory of Officer Ricardo Galvez

Downey Police Department

End of Watch: 11/18/2015

In what investigators believe was a botched robbery, Officer Ricardo “Ricky” Galvez was shot and killed as he sat in his car in a parking lot next to the police department around 11 P.M. It was the first line-of-duty death of a Downey Police Officer since 1981.

Officer Galvez had just returned to the police department from off-site training. Dressed in street clothes and seated in his personal vehicle in the public parking lot adjacent to the police station, two suspects ran up on him with the intent to commit a robbery. At least one of them opened fire, striking Officer Galvez. An officer beginning his shift heard the gunfire and pursued a vehicle fleeing the scene. A third officer inspected the parking lot and found Galvez shot in the vehicle.

The five-year veteran officer died in his car.

A juvenile and two adult men were arrested after a search. A handgun believed to have been used in the shooting was recovered.

Officer Galvez was 29 years old. A former U.S. Marine, he had been deployed twice during Operation Enduring Freedom. He was a runner and co-captain of Downey PD’s Baker-to-Las Vegas relay team.

He is survived by his mother.