Natalie Corona: Thousands pay respects today to fallen Davis police officer | The Sacramento Bee

Thousands from around Northern California are gathering this morning to pay their respects to fallen Davis police officer Natalie Corona at a memorial service in the city where she served.

The service, open to anyone on a first-come basis, is set to begin at 11 a.m. in the Pavilion at the ARC on the University of California, Davis, campus.

The Sacramento Bee will live stream the event using a video feed from KCRA.

Among those gathered will be family, friends, colleagues, law enforcement officials and appreciative residents of the region, many of whom have been flooding Davis police and the Corona family with condolences in the week since the 22-year-old officer was killed in an ambush on a downtown Davis street.

Corona, a native of the farming town of Arbuckle, 40 miles north of Davis in Colusa County, was killed Thursday evening, Jan. 10, while she investigated a traffic accident.

Corona was the first officer in the Davis Police Department to die in the line of duty since 1959.

Police said 48-year-old Kevin Limbaugh, a nearby resident, approached and shot Corona several times, then sprayed bullets on the street before fleeing. Police later found him dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a nearby house. A note found on his bed stated that he believed Davis police bombarded him with ultrasonic waves.

Friends, family and co-workers have described Corona as a bright light: smart, committed, upbeat. Her father, a former Colusa County sheriff’s deputy, and now a county supervisor, took her on police ride-alongs when she was young.

Corona, a rookie officer who had been on the force since mid-2018, said policing was her dream job.

Following the service, a funeral procession will take Corona to her hometown of Arbuckle. Streets and highways along the procession route will be briefly closed.

The procession will leave the Pavilion and head north on La Rue Road. It will proceed to Russell Boulevard, head north on Anderson Road and then head west on Covell Boulevard to Highway 113, then onto Interstate 5.