San Jose: Memorial held for community service officer killed while on duty

SAN JOSE — Hundreds gathered Friday morning at SAP Center for a public memorial service for a San Jose community service officer who was killed earlier this month by an alleged drunk driver.

Long Pham had worked as a community service officer since 2022.

He was killed by a driver allegedly under the influence on Aug. 3 while conducting traffic control around an earlier collision on Monterey Road. The driver crashed into a parked community service vehicle, pushing it over Pham and his partner Veronica Baer. Baer suffered major injuries and was hospitalized for four days with a dislocated shoulder, broken jaw, broken ribs and brain bleed.

Prosecutors filed a murder charge against 44-year-old Juan Huerta-Palacios, the man who hit and killed Pham. He was also charged with two felony DUI counts due to hitting and injuring Baer. Huerta-Palacios had two prior DUI arrests in 2001 and 2014.

Community service officers, which have been part of the San Jose Police Department since 2014, provide crowd and traffic control, issue parking citations, tow vehicles and investigate some incidents such as vandalism, burglary and non-injury traffic violations. They take an eight-week academy course.

This marked the first death of a community service officer in the line of duty since the position’s implementation in San Jose.

This is a developing report. Check back for updates.