SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Grieving family members and law enforcement colleagues will gather this weekend to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of a San Diego police officer who died in the line of duty last month in a traffic crash while assisting with a high-speed pursuit in Clairemont Mesa.
The memorial service for Austin Machitar, a 5 1/2-year member of the San Diego Police Department, is slated to take place Saturday morning at an El Cajon church following a law enforcement procession from Mission Valley.
According to Caltrans, the below roads will be closed on Saturday from 7:15 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. for the funeral procession.
- Eastbound I-8 at Interstate 15 (I-15)
- Southbound I-15 to eastbound/westbound I-8
- Northbound I-15 to eastbound I-8
- Eastbound I-8 off-ramp to Mission Gorge Road/Fairmount Avenue
- Southbound State Route 125 (SR-125) to eastbound I-8
- Northbound SR-125 to eastbound I-8
- Southbound State Route 67 to eastbound I-8
Late on the evening of Aug. 26, Machitar, 30, was driving a patrol SUV that was struck broadside in the 5200 block of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard by a BMW sedan being driven at high speed by a 16-year-old boy who allegedly had fled an attempted traffic stop moments earlier, according to authorities.
The impact killed Machitar at the scene and ejected his partner, Officer Zachary Martinez, from the police vehicle, which then caught fire.
Paramedics took Martinez and the teenager, Edgar Giovanny Oviedo of San Diego, to a trauma center, where the officer was admitted in critical condition and the youth was pronounced dead.
Martinez, 27, was released from hospital care Sept. 3 to continue his recovery at home.
Machitar, the son of a retired lawman who served with the San Diego County Sheriff's Office, is survived by his parents.
Copyright 2024, City News Service, Inc.
