Amber Willard
SOUTHWEST GLENDALE -- About 4,000 law enforcement officials and others
lined the sidewalk in front of the church where Deputy Hagop "Jake"
Kuredjian was remembered Tuesday morning.
When St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church was filled, the officers
stood shoulder to shoulder on the street and sidewalk -- united in their
grief for a fallen comrade.
Kuredjian, a deputy for the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, was
killed Friday in a shootout that followed an attempt to serve a federal
search warrant in Stevenson Ranch.
"For him, being a deputy sheriff was not just a job, it was a
calling," Gov. Gray Davis told the crowd inside the church where
Kuredjian, 40, was a member.
Davis later presented Kuredjian's mother with a flag that previously
flew over the state capitol. The ceremony, which started at 11 a.m. and
lasted about an hour, was broadcast over speakers for the hundreds of
people standing outside the church at 500 S. Central Ave.
The street was initially closed that morning from Colorado Street to
Chevy Chase Drive -- nine blocks -- and had to be closed an additional
four blocks to Los Feliz Road before the service started to accommodate
the number of patrol and other police cars that arrived to be part of the
motorcade.
Traffic was heavy around the area Tuesday morning and into the
afternoon, as the motorcade left the church and headed to Forest Lawn
Memorial-Park in Hollywood Hills, closing all westbound lanes of the
Ventura (134) Freeway from Brand Boulevard into Burbank for about an
hour.
In addition to Gov. Davis, Los Angeles County Mayor Michael Antonovich
spoke at Kuredjian's funeral.
"For 17 years, he devoted his life to law enforcement and the
well-being of the citizens of Los Angeles County," Antonovich said.
Bishop Moushegh Mardirossian, from the Western Prelacy of the Armenian
Church of America, called Kuredjian a servant who gave his life to keep
others safe.
"He always chose to be part of the solution ... to make our world a
better place," Mardirossian said during his eulogy.
