Mesa Sgt. Brandon Mendoza honored at funeral
Hundreds of relatives, friends, fellow officers and Mesa residents packed a church in the Southeast Valley on Friday morning to honor Mesa Police Officer Brandon Mendoza, who was killed in a collision this week with a wrong-way driver.
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Mendoza, 32, was posthumously promoted to sergeant following his death, but it was the 13-year veteran's work as a patrol officer in a west Mesa neighborhood that could be his most lasting legacy.
Residents near west Mesa's Guerrero Rotary Park knew Mendoza as a police officer as well as a community advocate and a guardian.
Mendoza was killed as he drove home from a shift early Monday and was involved in a head-on collision with another driver near U.S. 60 and Interstate 10. Police said the other driver, who also died in the crash, was likely impaired and had been driving the wrong way for more than 30 miles.
Mendoza worked with members of the West Mesa Community Development Corp. to secure grants that allowed police to do more work in the neighborhood, said Cynthia Dunham, the group's executive director. The success of those efforts led members of the development group to tease Mendoza about achieving "rock-star status" with residents, she said.
"In work where your success is based on the relationships you make, he was a great example of what can be achieved," Dunham added.
The strength of those bonds extended to some of the area's youngest residents, who were involved in a youth baseball program that started after officers worked to clear vandals, gang members and transients from the park, said Steve Jimenez, a baseball coach at Guerrero Park and close friend of Mendoza's.
Mendoza would swing by practices weekly while on patrol where the kids on the baseball team would hug him or shake his hand to greet him.
Ray Villa, community-partnership coordinator for Mesa Police Department, said Mendoza's dedication to community policing — a philosophy that relies on relationships between police and residents to identify and address public-safety issues — was also evident in the way people would invite Mendoza into their homes to eat while he was on patrol.
When it came to crime, though, Mendoza was like a bulldog who would go out and take care of the issue no matter what, Villa said.
Mendoza aspired to become a sergeant, Villa said. He had been studying and preparing for his interview and had placed among the top 20 qualifiers for the position, Villa said.
Mendoza received numerous awards and accolades during the years he dedicated to the Police Department, including being named the Optimist Club of Mesa's Officer of the Year in 2013 for his strong work ethic, Villa said.
Mendoza was also openly gay and an active member of the Valley's LGBT community, prompting many who had never met the veteran Mesa officer to offer their condolences and words of support after learning of his death on Monday.
"The community has lost an honorable and brave man," former Phoenix City Councilman Tom Simplot wrote Monday on Twitter. "The LGBT community has lost one of our own. Rest in peace Officer Brandon Mendoza."
As for the community where Mendoza was known so well, many reacted with shock to learn that the officer they respected would no longer be patrolling the streets of west Mesa.
