Fallen LAPD officers honored along Harbor (110) Freeway

Two LAPD officers who died in separate crime-related vehicle crashes are now being remembered by motorists along a stretch of the Harbor (110) Freeway in San Pedro with a sign honoring their memory.

Under a resolution approved by both houses of the Legislature, the Harbor Freeway between exit 1A and exit 1B is now designated as the Officer Robert Joe Mata and Officer Roberto C. Sanchez Memorial Highway.

Officials unveiled the sign in an emotional time Monday.

Mata was 26 when he was killed in a vehicle accident on Sept. 19, 2000, in the Harbor area while responding to a call for backup from another officer who was investigating a stolen vehicle.

Mata was born in Los Angeles and graduated from Etiwanda High School in June 1991. He enlisted in the Navy in November 1992 and served aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Fletcher, which patrolled near Iraq in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

After his discharge, he settled in Hawaii, where he met and married his wife Holly. They moved to Whittier when he became homesick for his native Southern California.

Mata entered the Los Angeles Police Academy on Jan. 22, 1996, and began his service in the Newton Division. He was shifted to the Southeast area and finally to the Harbor area, where he was assigned to the Specialized Enforcement Unit, Gang Detail.

Mata saw his wife off for her first day of work as a sheriff’s deputy at the Twin Towers Jail the day before he died, which was also the day he celebrated his oldest child’s fifth birthday.

Sanchez, who was born in Mexico, was 32 when he died from injuries he sustained when his vehicle was struck by another while in pursuit of a suspect on May 3, 2014. He graduated from the academy in 2008.

The ceremony unveiling the sign was held at the LAPD’s Harbor Community Police Station where both officers worked.

—City News Service