Funeral Honors SDPD Detectives Killed In Wrong-Way Freeway Crash

4S RANCH, CA — Grieving family members and law enforcement colleagues gathered Tuesday to bid farewell to a young married couple who rose through the ranks of the San Diego Police Department to the post of detective together before losing their lives in a head-on freeway crash near the U.S.- Mexico border.

The late-morning memorial at a 4S Ranch church honored the lives of Escondido residents Ryan Park, 32, and Jamie Huntley-Park, 33, who were killed when a car heading north on the southbound side of Interstate 5 in San Ysidro crashed into the unmarked city-owned vehicle they were in shortly before 10:30 a.m. on June 4.

"Ever since (the accident) ... the outpouring of support has just been tremendous," SDPD Chief David Nisleit told the mourners. "To Jamie and Ryan, you will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. Rest in peace, my friends. We'll take it from here."

The fiery collision also killed the errant motorist, 58-year-old Sandra Daniels of Ramona. It was unclear how and why Daniels wound up driving on the wrong side of the freeway near Dairy Mart Road at speeds up to 90 mph, though her husband told the San Diego Union-Tribune in an interview six days later that his wife had diabetes and may have become disoriented behind the wheel due to low blood sugar.

Park and Huntley-Park -- who were not on duty on the day of the deadly accident, but were following up on cases they were working on -- had been married since 2016, having met while attending police academy four years earlier. They were hired at the same time in April 2012 and both earned the rank of detective in July 2018.

Park went on to work in the SDPD Homicide Unit, his wife in the SDPD Southern Division.

Huntley-Park grew up in La Jolla playing hockey, her father's favorite sport.

"I still find this weird that a SoCal kid in La Jolla plays hockey. But you know what -- she was really good," Nisleit said.

Before she joined the police force, Huntley-Park played Division III hockey on a scholarship at Elmira College, a private college in New York State.

Nisleit said she was known as an enforcer on the ice who set the college's record for penalty minutes in a season, to her father's delight.

After her playing days, Huntley-Park became a hockey coach and referee, working numerous events in the latter role for USA Hockey, including an Olympic qualifier in Japan in 2017, two women's world championships and two Four Nations Cup tournaments.

Before joining the SDPD, Park -- a UCLA graduate who grew up in Los Angeles -- conducted archeological field research in Cusco, Peru, the police chief told the gathering.

Park met Nisleit in 2013, as part of the SDPD's team for the Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay, a 120-mile annual run from Southern California to Nevada.

In 2013 and 2014, Nisleit was Park's commanding officer in the SDPD Western Division and ran with him after work several times.

"Ryan was a very gifted runner, but he was also a goofy runner," Nisleit said. "(I) don't mean any harm or foul by that, but if there was a puddle, Ryan would jump in it."

Park's colleagues who spoke at the funeral described him as a quirky, extremely funny co-worker whose endearing fondness for wisecracks and teasing was amply balanced by his dedication and a rare talent for cracking criminal cases.

SDPD homicide Detective Steven Choy, who went through police academy with the couple and was one of Park's roommates at the time, told the gathering that "Ryan and Jamie represented the very best of us."

"You both will be missed tremendously by your SDPD family," he said.

Following the funeral service, the large contingent of personnel from the San Diego Police Department and other agencies in attendance gathered in rows outside the church and stood at attention, saluting, as pallbearer officers brought out the couple's American flag-draped double casket, led by a drum-and-bagpipe corps.

A law enforcement procession then accompanied the couple's hearse to their final resting place at El Camino Memorial Cemetery in Sorrento Valley.

— City News Service