On the recordMarch 13, 2014
For the Bay Area law enforcement community, few days are sadder and more tragically memorable than Saturday, March 21, 2009. It is a day that everyone in the community will always recall where they were when they heard the news. March 21 will always be remembered as the day that four brave police officers of the Oakland Police Department were killed in the line of duty, in service to the people they swore an oath to protect. I rise to recognize four men who died 5 years ago the same way they lived--as heroes. I rise to recognize Sergeant Mark Dunakin, Sergeant Ervin ``Erv'' Romans, Sergeant Daniel Sakai, and Officer John Hege. We lost these officers on the same day at the hands of the same murderer, but we make sure today that they were not taken in vain and that this killer did not extinguish their memories. Sergeant Mark Dunakin was devoted to the East Bay. Raised in Pleasanton, he graduated from Chabot College in Hayward and served the Oakland Police Department for 18 years. He worked in the patrol division, the homicide unit, and the traffic operations section. He loved driving through the streets of Oakland on his Harley- Davidson, making sure the East Bay was safe. He was even a part of the Oakland Police Department's motorcycle drill team, which went all over the State of California.…
