California

‘I'm at Peace': Substation Renamed After Fallen SDPD Officer Archie Buggs

Saturday’s dedication ceremony marks 39 years since San Diego Police Department Officer Archie Buggs was gunned down in the line of duty

After years of efforts by family members, colleagues and local leaders, a San Diego police officer killed in the line of duty will forever live on at a substation that now bears his name, in the neighborhood he helped protect.

The San Diego Police Department’s (SDPD) Southeastern Division Substation on Skyline Drive was renamed Saturday to The Archie Buggs Memorial Building in honor of fallen officer Archie Buggs, killed exactly 39 years ago to the day, Nov. 4, 1978.

“Now it happened; I’m at peace,” Buggs’ sister, Gwen Buggs, said after the dedication ceremony for her brother.

Buggs’ mother died this past April. Gwen said she wished their mother could’ve been there to witness this moment long in the making.

“It’s been a long time coming and I’m so happy,” Gwen said at the ceremony. I’ll always keep this memory, for as long as I live.”

“Today is a blessed day that we all can celebrate,” added Pam Jones, Buggs’ cousin.

Buggs was killed on the job while conducting a traffic stop on Skyline Drive, about a block away from where the substation stands.

The officer was shot four times by gang member Jesus Cecena, who was just 17 years old at the time.

Buggs’ SDPD partner, Jesse Navarro – who now works in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office – remembers it like it was yesterday.

Archie-Buggs-Station-2
NBC 7 San Diego
Photos of slain SDPD Officer Archie Buggs lined the front of the substation on Skyline Drive, now named in his honor.

Navarro, who delivered an emotional speech at Saturday’s dedication, recalled that very day, 39 years ago, when he was on his way to meet with his "buddy and partner."

Navaro said Buggs had gone ahead of him to take care of his beat and the Skyline area. The pair had agreed to meet at a local doughnut shop.

“Doughnuts were part of our life,” Navarro said with a smile.

But in an instant, everything changed.

“As I’m approaching Euclid and 94, I hear the call; I hear the call that I remember every single day: ‘Shots fired; officer involved,’” he said, fighting tears. “You don’t have to be in law enforcement to understand what that means. My heart stopped.”

Navarro said he pulled over to the side of the road to listen to the call.

“(I was) hoping, hoping that it was a mistake, hoping there was wrong information. Seconds later, more calls came in,” he explained.

Navarro raced to the scene – 7100 Skyline Drive. He said he had never driven so fast in his life.

“I continued on, driving the fastest that I could up the hill, so I could get here in time to save my brother,” he said, choking up. “Hoping that I’d get here in time to save him and continue our efforts to save our community.

When he arrived, he saw Buggs lying on the street, bleeding. He ran to him. To this day, Navarro likes to believe his partner saw and heard him in his last few moments of life.

NBC 7’s Candice Nguyen spoke with Jesse Navarro at a San Diego Police Museum event 36 years after Navarro’s partner Archie Buggs was shot and killed while on duty.

“I held his hand, and I told him what him and I had said before, ‘If anyone of us gets killed, please look out for the family.’ And I told him – I like to believe that he was listening to me – and I said, ‘Archie, I will always look out for your family.’"

Navarro kept his promise. He considers himself an adopted member of the Buggs family. Their fight for the renaming of the substation was his fight, too.

For Navarro, Gwen Buggs, Jones and the SDPD, the pain of Buggs’ death lingers.

The renaming of the substation will aid in their continued healing; it’ll be a place where Buggs’ name will proudly live on.

This past July, Cecena for the third time was denied parole by California Governor Jerry Brown who rejected a February recommendation of a state parole board which said Cecena was fit to be released.

The governor has said in the past that although Cecena was a teenager at the time of the crime and has improved himself while in prison, other factors, including his “resistance to explore the motivations behind the killing” override that. Brown said Cecena still refuses to give a real account of what happened the night he shot Buggs to death and why he did it.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis will attend the 15th parole hearing of Jesus Cecena, the man who killed SDPD Officer Archie Buggs, to ask that he stay behind bars. NBC 7’s Catherine Garcia spoke to her in our studio today.
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