Moving service, ‘final roll call’ honor fallen Officer Tiffany Enriquez
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - After a moving service in which she was remembered as someone who always put others before herself ― until the very end ― fallen Officer Tiffany Enriquez was honored Thursday with a poignant procession and “final roll call" fronting HPD headquarters.
Officers lined Beretania Street for the ceremony, saluting a hearse carrying Enriquez’s casket before flower petals were dropped on the motorcade from the police department’s Air One helicopter.
The officer’s final roll call boomed over a loudspeaker:
“Officer Tiffany Victoria Enriquez. End of watch: Jan. 19, 2020 at 9:53 hours."
It continued: “Officer Enriquez, you served the public with aloha and with great, deep passion and commitment to your oath. From the Honolulu Police ohana, mahalo nui loa for your commitment and dedication to public service. A hui hou until we meet again. Aloha oe. Aloha oe.”
The procession followed a service at Diamond Head Mortuary, where hundred of police officers, relatives and others gathered to celebrate a life snuffed out too soon.
"On the day she was taken from us, she courageously entered a dangerous and volatile situation to rescue a stranger,” Jonathan Daniel Baba, her boyfriend and also a police officer, told attendees.
One of Enriquez’s daughters, Jazmyn, remembered her mother as “fearless, resilient, strong.”
“Whatever she did, she did out of pure love. There was never a time she wouldn’t be there for you,” she said, through tears. “My momma was my best friend.”
[Read more: Officer Tiffany Enriquez remembered: ‘She will always be my hero’]
Enriquez was fatally shot on Jan. 19 along with Officer Kaulike Kalama in a violent Diamond Head rampage that also left the suspect’s landlord dead and five homes burned to the ground.
Enriquez was killed as she rushed to help a woman who had been stabbed.
Sgt. Chris Kim, the family’s spokesman, said Enriquez’s loved ones have been touched by the outpouring of support from the community.
“They just want to express their sincere gratitude to the community, the police department, to Hawaii, to the nation and to the world just for the amount of love and support they’ve received,” he said.
Kim added the tribute to Enriquez is fitting for an officer who dedicated her life to service.
“We’re sending her off to the gates of heaven now,” he said.
At the service for Enriquez, loved ones went to the podium one after another to remember a mother and grandmother who believed in the power of service to others.
“I lost my baby and my princess,” said her father, Peter Bilon, during a moving service attended by hundreds of police officers and others. “But the whole community ... lost a beautiful person.”
Following the family’s speeches, Police Chief Susan Ballard presented Enriquez’s three daughters with a Honolulu Police Department flag and saluted each of them.
Enriquez, 38, was a seven-year veteran of HPD assigned to Waikiki. She was also an Air Force veteran.
In addition to her three daughters, she is survived by a grandson.
Details on Kalama’s services have not yet been publicly announced.
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