Elk Grove pays tribute to fallen motor officer Ty Lenehan, one year after his death
Fallen Elk Grove motor officer Tyler Lenehan will be remembered in the city he served, in the department where his fellow officers mourn and on the highway where he lost his life.
Tyler Lenehan served six years as an Elk Grove motor officer after stints with Galt and Citrus Heights police. The Elk Grove posting was his dream assignment, a dream cut short the morning of Jan. 21, 2022, by a suspected drunken wrong-way driver on his way to work. Lenehan was 44 years old. He left behind a wife and two children.
“You will see Ty’s name in perpetuity,” an emotional Elk Grove Police Chief Bobby Davis told Lenehan’s family, friends and law enforcement officers at a special tribute to the motor officer Tuesday evening in Elk Grove. “It will never go away.”
Elk Grove Police Department’s Laguna Palms Way headquarters will be renamed the Lenehan Public Safety Center in honor of the first peace officer in the city’s history to die in uniform.
Lenehan’s fellow motor officers unveiled a banner that will be forever posted on Elk Grove streets. The city banners honor residents who served in the nation’s military. A banner for Lenehan, once an Air Force senior airman, will join its ranks.
And on Highway 99, a stretch of the roadway through Elk Grove will now be known as “Police Officer Tyler ‘Ty’ Lenehan Memorial Highway.”
“Our city is not the same. It has impacted so many. The shared trauma of his death has brought our police department closer together than it’s ever been,” Elk Grove City Manager Jason Behrmann said. “When I think about Ty, the thing that comes to mind is service: The service to his country; the service to his community; the communities that he served. He knew he was putting his life at risk. The love that he had for his family and his family had for him. Just as he made an impact on each of our lives, we want to show a ... permanent reminder of his life and his sacrifice for our community.”
California Highway Patrol officers arrested Jermaine Jeryan Walton in connection with the deadly collision, which took place in Sacramento. Officers said Walton, 32, was “walking away from the scene” when he was detained. Walton remains held in lieu of $1 million bail at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove on suspicion of murder and felony hit-and-run causing death in Lenehan’s death.
Walton returns Feb. 1 to Sacramento Superior Court.
Walton previously pleaded guilty in January 2018 to a 2017 misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence, court records showed. The conviction came with a “Watson advisory” warning that if he again drove under the influence and was involved in an incident that kills someone he could face a murder count.
Lenehan’s death a year ago this week gutted his department and left behind a deeply shaken Elk Grove. Residents crowded the streets for a citywide procession in the days after he was fatally struck aboard his motorcycle, offering farewell and solemn thanks to the man all knew as Ty.
Elk Grove City Councilman Kevin Spease recalled the moment on Tuesday as photos of a smiling Lenehan looked on above the gathered crowd.
“The best measure of the heart and soul of the Elk Grove community was displayed in the days following the death of Officer Ty Lenehan. It was very clear that the heart and soul of Elk Grove was on display in an outpouring of love and respect for Ty,” Spease said through tears before speaking directly to Lenehan’s family.
“I want Ty’s family to know that the Elk Grove community loves and appreciates you,” Spease said. “We thank you, Ty. You will forever be our protector, our champion, our hero.”
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