LAPD officer killed in crash was a standout

LAPD officer killed in crash was a standout
Colleagues and department officials describe Officer Spree Desha, 35, a seven-year veteran, as a solid, serious cop. Desha recently started a new job at headquarters downtown.
By Andrew Blankstein and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
4:00 PM PDT, September 13, 2008
Amid the ranks of the city's young, ambitious police officers, Spree Desha stood out.

It was not just that she was tall and striking, although she was both of those. She was a solid, serious cop, who had begun a steady climb through the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Desha, 35, was killed Friday, one of at least 25 fatalities in the head-on collision of a Metrolink commuter train and a freight train in Chatsworth.

For the hundreds of police officers and firefighters who worked through the night, the tragedy turned personal as word spread that an officer was among the dead. Some at the scene were said to be former patrol partners of Desha's.

Scores of officers stood in two, solemn columns along the edge of the wreckage, a makeshift honor guard waiting to salute their fallen colleague. As her body was removed on a board, covered with an American flag, her colleagues gently carried her to an ambulance with military precision and respect. Desha's badge, said one officer who helped carry her body, was bent almost in half by the force of the crash.
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