On July 27th 2007 George Cortez Jr. was called to a check cashing business for check fraud in progress. while attempting to arrest the male and female suspects, the male pulled a gun and fatally shot Officer Cortez. The suspects were apprehended a couple of hours later hiding in a closet. He is survived by his wife and 2 sons. The funeral was held on August 3rd 2007.I did not attend the service as I did not know him. Instead I wished to see the funeral procession as they are most impressive. No other person short of the President of these United States is so honored.
The Procession was scheduled to start at 11:30 at 75th ave. and the 101, it would follow the 101 south exit at northern and continue on to the cemetery at 67th ave. and Northern.
I drove the route up and back looking for a good place to park without being on private property and where I would be able to leave if needed. I parked on 89th ave. and Northern next to a fallow corn field behind 2 other cars. Around 11:25 I heard on my scanner that DPS was not going to close the freeway until 12:00. I setup my camcorder in the back seat on top of a tool box and waited. They closed the freeway and streets at noon but the procession did not start until 12:30. At 12:35 the Procession entered the freeway, at 13:10 the motorcade reached my location. In the lead were 150 police motorcycles from Phoenix and other police departments. This was followed by the hearse, and several buses and cars carrying the dearly beloved. behind them came (as best I could count) 318 police cars interspersed with an unknown number of unmarked cars from Phoenix and pretty much every city in the state of Arizona. The police cars were followed by 13 fire trucks from various city's in the valley. This was followed by an unknown number of private vehicles. 1 police helicopter escorted the procession. By this time around 13:45 I had to leave. Traffic on 89th ave. (a small 2 lane street) had backed up all the way to Glendale ave. I estimate it took another 20 to 30 minutes for the last vehicle to clear the highway. here are some of the pictures:
1 comment:
I came across your comments about George Cortez Jr. and just wanted to thank you for taking the time to describe what I could not see in such detail. Georgie was my beautiful nephew! I was in one of the limos in the procession with Georgie's father, my brother, George Sr. and the rest of the Cortez family. You had to have been one of the many caring people who took the time out of their busy day to pull over and honor my nephew and I want you to know how much we appreciated that. I have always watched the funeral procession of fallen officers on TV in awe of the way they are honored and even though I did not know those officers personally, that didn't stop the tears from flowing as I imagined the pain their family must be going through. Well, I have lived that pain and I would never ever have come close to imagining what that would feel like. It's a pain that will never go away and if there is one word that can describe the feeling of being in that procession, it's bittersweet. Bitter towards the coward who took our Georgie away! Bitter that Georgie is not around to raise his two sons to be the man that Georgie was. Bitter that nothing can bring him back. Bitter that Georgie was filled with so much life that was cut way too short...yet sweet that Georgie wanted to be a police officer so much that I know he had to have been impressed looking down at his farewell. Sweet that so many people like yourself came out to honor him. Sweet because Georgie had Jesus in his heart and I know he is in a better place as much as it hurts to not have him here. You said you didn't know him, if you had, your life would be so different now. That's how much he was loved by everyone who did know him. Thank you again for your comments and his picture.
God Bless You Always
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