Celebration of life set for fallen Marysville SWAT officer killed in Yuba County shooting

The life of slain Marysville police officer Osmar Rodarte will be celebrated Tuesday near Wheatland before he is laid to rest in a private ceremony.

The ceremony for the fallen Rodarte will be 10 a.m. April 8 at the Hard Rock Live venue, 3317 Forty Mile Road. The ceremony will be open to the public and law enforcement officers from across Northern California are expected to attend. Following the ceremony, a procession will escort Rodarte to his resting place and a private family-only burial, the Marysville Police Department said.

Rodarte, a Marysville SWAT officer, was shot and killed March 26 when he and a partner were ambushed while serving a warrant at an Olivehurst home as part of a multi-county narcotics operation targeting transnational drug traffickers. Rodarte’s gunman was killed in the exchange of gunfire. The 30-year-old Rodarte was an Army veteran and a graduate of the Sacramento Police Academy. He had served just two years with Marysville Police Department when he was killed.

Rodarte was the first Marysville officer to lose his life in the line of duty in 103 years. The young officer’s death stunned the small city of some 13,000 people an hour’s drive north of Sacramento. Residents lined the streets of the city’s historic downtown last week to say goodbye as a procession of law enforcement officers carried his flag-shrouded casket to a Placer County funeral home.

Darrell Smith

The Sacramento Bee

916-321-1040

Darrell Smith is a local reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He joined The Bee in 2006 and previously worked at newspapers in Palm Springs, Colorado Springs and Marysville. Smith was born and raised at Beale Air Force Base and lives in Elk Grove.