NOGALES, Ariz. (KGUN) — On April 27th 2018, Nogales police officer Jesus Cordova was shot and killed while trying to stop a driver who had hijacked a car.
“I miss him a lot, that day was the worst day ever,” Sophia Vazquez, step-daughter of Jesus Cordova.
Officer Cordova left behind his wife and four kids, one of them being his stepdaughter, Sophia Vazquez. Vazquez was 8 years old when he died.
“He was a really good friend of mine," Vazquez said. "We were like besties basically. And he was a really good father as well.”
Four years later, Officer Cordova’s family and friends still cry over his senseless death. They gathered at the parking lot where he was killed, in recognition of the anniversary of his death.
“Coming here I was shaking," said Alyssa Cordova, Jesus Cordova's wife. I get here, take a couple breaths, and I said ‘Okay we’re here we’re going to do this, we’re here for him.'”
Officer Cordova’s wife brought their kids to the memorial. She says it’s her duty to remind them of their father and his life of service.
“My kids know the permanence of death, how it doesn’t get better it doesn’t go away," Alyssa Cordova said.
The site of Officer Cordova’s death is marked with a cross and a picture of him. On Wednesday, the Nogales Police Department put up a second memorial: a sign with the words “a hero remembered never dies.”
“By doing these commemorations these events, we ensure that he remains alive in the spirit in the community, in us,” Alyssa Cordova said.
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