By Brooklynn Wong
This week’s City Council Meeting presented an opportunity for city officials and the police department to address the public and provide updates on the passing of Reserve Officer Art Brice.
Brice, a Buena Park PD Reserve Officer, was involved in a traffic accident that took his life a couple of weeks ago as he was making his way home in the early morning hours from a shift in Buena Park to his home in Moreno Valley.
Local pastor and police chaplain Don Harbert gave the invocation for the meeting, requesting a moment of silence and then praying for Brice’s family.
The meeting was also closed in Officer Brice’s honor.
In between, Chief Corey Sianez gave an update, inviting the public to three events that will commemorate Brice’s life this week (see calendar).
He thanked the residents for their support, in the form of meals brought to the PD and well-wishes through social media. He said he has gotten to spend some time with Brice’s wife, Kerri, who is “overwhelmed by support” from the police department as well as residents that were touched by Officer Brice during his work in Buena Park.
Chief Sianez spoke of Brice as a compassionate and hardworking man, who had served in the military and with two other local police departments before coming to work at BPPD, where he worked almost every Friday to help cover the busy weekend shifts.
He also was involved with the color guard and the Orange County Gang Reduction & Intervention Partnership.
Sianez said, “Our chaplains really stepped to the plate” in the aftermath of the tragedy, and expressed pride in BPPD personnel, for the respect and support they showed Brice’s family by immediately spending time with them at the hospital.
He also said that the morning of the accident, “In Art Brice fashion,” Brice had decided to stick around to help a younger officer with a report, so he left the police department two hours after the conclusion of his shift.
Chief Sianez said Officer Brice was “truly a kind and caring man…he loved being a cop and loved serving this community.”
