Palm Springs police Wednesday escorted the daughter of an officer who was killed nearly three years ago to her first day of seventh grade.
Officers from the Palm Springs Police Department and other local law enforcement agencies have escorted Vanessa Vega to her first day of school every year since her father, Palm Springs police Officer Gil Vega, along with Officer Lesley Zerebny, were both shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call on Oct. 8, 2016.
"Although their watch ended, our continued," Palm Springs police said in a post on the department's Facebook page. "They have and always will be family."
The officers, who described themselves as Vanessa's "PSPD Aunts and Uncles," walked her into school and, in a few lighthearted moments captured in pictures posted to the department's page, "tried as hard as possible to embarrass her on her first day of 7th grade.''
"We know these moments can never replace those that would have been shared by Gil but we hope to help as much as possible," the department's post said. "Thank you Vanessa for putting up with us...we think your dad would have had a good laugh."
The man convicted of Vega's and Zerebny's murder, John Hernandez Felix, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday. A jury in May recommended he be sentenced to death.
