SANTA MARIA - The family of the Santa Maria Police Officer who was shot and killed last Saturday is outraged that their son is not being given a traditional police funeral with full honors.
During the press briefing on the shooting last Saturday, Santa Maria Police Chief Dan Macagni said it would be hypocritical for the department to give Officer Albert Covarrubias Jr. a police funeral given the unusual circumstances surrounding his death.
"I said this isn't right", Albert Covarrubias Sr. says he told a SMPD supervisor Wednesday morning, "he told me there's a lot of people in the department who are saying what you said right now, he said there's a lot of turmoil within because of what's happened."
Just weeks before his death, Albert Covarrubias Jr. went to Las Vegas with his best friend on the Santa Maria Police Department, Officer Matt Kline.
They were celebrating Covarrubias' recent wedding to his wife Gloria who provided Central Coast News photos of the trip.
Albert Covarrubias Sr. says he wants to talk to Matt Kline who he says fired the shot that killed his best buddy Albert Jr. last weekend.
"Regardless of how it went down, it's got to be eating him", Covarrubias Sr. says of the shooting and how its affected Kline, "the reason I know its eating him is because I know how my son looked up at him, they were the best of buds, so my thing with Matt is, come and talk to me."
Gloria Covarrubias says she's too upset to talk about what happened to her husband.
She denies an Associated Press report that says Albert Jr. was involved in an illegal sexual relationship with a 17 year old girl who worked as a volunteer Police Explorer at DUI checkpoints with Albert Jr.
"We're all human beings, my son could have made a bad decision there, and if he did then so be it", Covarrubias Sr. says, "it was a bad decision, it was a wrong decision, but it's like I said, he didn't need to die over it."
Covarrubias Sr. says he told the police supervisor he's upset fellow officers are not showing respect for his son's death on duty by putting a traditional black band across their badges and by not giving Albert Jr. a police department funeral with full honors.
"At this point in time right now that uniform, that badge, I can't stand it", Covarrubias Sr. says, "I told him I hate it."
Covarrubias Sr. says his son will not be buried in his police uniform and he says he does not want any SMPD officers to attend the funeral on Monday in Santa Maria.
"If they are going to turn their back on him, then I'm going to turn my back on them", Covarrubias Sr. says.
Police have said Albert Jr. was shot after he resisted and fired his weapon at other officers, including his second cousin SMPD Sgt. Chris Nartatez, who were trying to arrest him on allegations of sexual misconduct with the 17 year old girl.
Covarrubias Sr. says he keeps learning new details about what happened last weekend.
"I learned that he wasn't shot in the chest, they said he was shot in the neck", Covarrubias Sr. says, "I also learned that nobody gave him any first aid until the paramedics showed up, but it that was the case, what was going on out there, what was really going on out there?"
Covarrubias Sr. says he was told by the SMPD supervisor he cannot have Albert Jr.'s personal belongings from his locker at the police station because its evidence in the ongoing investigation into the shooting.
"I told him it was an unacceptable answer", Covarrubias Sr. says, "keys, bank statements, things like that aren't part of an investigation, has nothing to do with it, I said I need that stuff because I need to start taking care of things for my son."
Phone calls seeking comment from the Santa Maria Police Department, from either Chief Macagni or the Public Information Officer, were not returned.
There's been no Police Department comment on the shooting since a press briefing on the incident last Saturday afternoon.
