The funeral procession for LAPD Officer Robert J. Cottle, killed March 24 in Afghanistan while on
Marine Reserve duty, was moving through the streets of downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.
Thousands were expected to pay tribute to Cottle at a service at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Cottle’s casket, covered in an American flag, was being carried in a wagon by horseback from Los Angeles Police Department headquarters to the cathedral, with a group of law enforcement officers walking alongside and to the back.
Onlookers lined some street corners, watching as the procession passed by.
Cottle, 45, was traveling with three other Marines
in the Marja region of southern Afghanistan, which has been the focus of an
intense U.S.-led offensive against Taliban forces in recent weeks.
Cottle,
who joined the LAPD in 1990 and won a coveted SWAT position six years
later, is the first active LAPD officer to be killed in Iraq or
Afghanistan, police officials said.
A veteran of two tours of
duty in Iraq, Cottle deployed to Afghanistan in August 2009
and was scheduled to return home this summer. Officers recalled a
friend who stood out even in the rarefied air of SWAT for the intensity
he brought to the LAPD’s most demanding assignment and the care he
showed for other officers who had turned him into one of the unit’s
leaders.
Their armored vehicle struck an improvised explosive device, killing
Cottle and another Marine and seriously wounding the two others, said LAPD Capt. John Incontro, who oversees SWAT operations.
Here are details about the memorial:
TRAFFIC
at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Portions of 1st Street, Broadway, Spring Street, Temple Street, Hill
Street, and Grand Avenue will be closed as early as 6 a.m., according
to the LAPD.
TRANSPORTATION
Metro bus service in downtown Los Angeles will be affected.
A funeral procession will begin at 8:45 a.m. at the Police
Administration Building, located at 100 W. 1st St., and will proceed to
the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 555 W. Temple St. Numerous
Metro bus lines in the Civic Center area will be detoured from 6 a.m.
to 2 p.m., at which time bus service will return to its regular
schedules. Metro bus lines affected by the detours will include:
2, 4, 10, 14, 30, 31, 37, 40, 42, 42A, 45, 48, 55, 60, 68, 70, 71, 76,
78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 302, 333, 355, 439, 445, 485,
487, 489, 714, 730, 740, 745, 770, 794 and Silver Line, according to
the L.A. Department of Transportation.
California’s War Dead database: Read more than 100 memories shared by Cottle’s friends and family on his memorial page. Share your own memories and learn more about his life and the lives of more than 580 other men and women from California who have died while supporting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Photo: Funeral procession for Robert Cottle begins down 1st Street in downtown Los Angeles. Credit: Marc Martin / Los Angeles Times
LAPD Officer Robert J. Cottle. Credit: LAPD