Victims and admirers were likely to remember Ricky Del Fiorentino as a big teddy bear in uniform. Young people too.
“He was a very nice man,” said Fort Bragg High School student Elizabeth Anderson. She took woodshop with Ricky”s son, who is now a senior in high school. She remembers how Ricky naturally commanded respect and encouraged smiles and laughter.
“Santa Claus cheeks” was a nickname her family had for the jolly policeman.
Anderson replaced her profile picture on Facebook with an image of Del Fiorentino”s badge. Dozens of other Fort Bragg residents have done the same to honor the deputy.
“We should never forget him, he was a wonderful man” she said.
Strong and calm
Big and powerful, the decorated officer was once a legendary Napa High School football player for champion teams and wrestled for the state heavyweight championship in the 1982-83 school year, finishing second. He was inducted into the Napa High School Hall of Fame in 1998, joining some legendary sports figures like baseball player Bill Buckner.
Del Fiorentino served 26 years in local law enforcement. He was with the Mendocino County Sheriff”s office most of that time, spending 10 years with the Fort Bragg Police Department then going back to the county.
Despite his considerable strength and 6-foot-4-inch stature, Del Fiorentino, 48, was known for mastering a scene with his calm demeanor, not his muscles or weapons.
“When he was a Fort Bragg police officer, I had two teenage sons,” said Anna Marie Stenberg of Fort Bragg.
“Ricky helped me a lot with them He respected them and they respected him. I also worked with him at Project Sanctuary where he had the ability to connect and therefore deal sympathetically with women in very stressful situations,” Stenberg said.
Susan Fernbach, a former staffer at adult protective services, saw how the deputy was kind and helpful to senior citizens.
“He had true ”protector energy,” a benign and friendly presence that people took comfort and had confidence in,” she said.
Dozens of people have relayed similar stories about Del Fiorentino on Facebook since an assault-rifle wielding gunman in Cleone killed him on March 19.
Decorated hero
Del Fiorentino was decorated several times for heroics, such as in 2006 when he arrested a Kern County murder suspect in Willits.
In 1992 this reporter was having lunch in Noyo Harbor when a jumper appeared on the rail of Noyo Bridge. My friend Vern Hartman of Gridley and I got to the water along with Del Fiorentino a few seconds after the mentally disturbed young man jumped, dislocating his shoulder and screaming in agony. Seconds counted. The wide-bodied but still superbly athletic officer dived headlong into the icy water, stopping only for a heartbeat to take off his gun and radio belts. We were both awestruck when he jumped in shoes and all, so as not to allow the young man to go under. Hartman threw him a rope just as the rest of the cops arrived and took control.
Del Fiorentino was given a commendation for his actions that day. Later he saw me and thanked me, although I had done nothing but watch. Six years later he jumped in icy waters again, to save four people swept into the water at Pudding Creek by a sneaker wave. Another commendation for Del Fiorentino.
Perhaps the award that best reflects Del Fiorentino is a 2004 letter from a parent in his official file about how comforting and helpful the deputy was after another of the Mendocino Coast”s darkest days when two members of the South Lake Tahoe St. Vincent”s School 8th Grade basketball team and a parent all died off Caspar when a wave dragged the students into the water. The deputy went above and beyond.
“Ricky was described as being helpful, courteous and extremely professional,” the file says.
High school days
Friends from high school remember Del Fiorentino in the same way as those from tragedy and crime scenes.
“His size was somewhat intimidating,” said Tammy Madison, a fellow graduate in Napa High”s class of 1983.
“Yet Ricky was very soft spoken, a super, super guy. He was a gentleman, always polite, opening doors for women,” said Madison.
He carried many of his high school friends forward and held them through the ups and downs of “real” life. Two contacted were too distraught to speak about him. Del Fiorentino and the sports crowd of those high school days were sometimes goofy but never mean, Madison remembers.
“Ricky was hilarious. Yes, they were the jocks, but never bullies, a really good group of guys,” Madison said. “I had friends who had crushes on Ricky but he never knew it.”
She wasn”t close to him herself at the time but admired his manners. He was no stereotypical football player who didn”t go to class.
“He kept in touch with several of his high school teachers over the years and one in particular is extremely distraught right now. It”s so sad, such a needless loss of a very good man.”
Wise teacher
Tributes for the fallen officer that have popped up on dozens of websites and street corners show this was a man who loved many families. He has many, many relatives and friends in Napa and other parts of Northern California, along with his big family in blue. He has fishing and hunting buddies, friends from his days as Fort Bragg High wrestling coach and more than one family by blood and marriage. Del Fiorentino also wrestled on a scholarship at the University of Oklahoma.
One of his key roles in law enforcement was as a teacher, having been a field training officer and a defensive tactics instructor for the sheriff”s department.
Fort Bragg resident Aaron Giannini”s life was changed when he met Del Fiorentino as a police cadet.
“I hear stories people tell about how their experiences with the police are so negative. It was people like Ricky Del Fiorentino that cemented the idea in my mind that we can trust, respect and ultimately call friends those that serve and protect us,” Giannini said.
Del Fiorentino gently helped show Giannini that he wasn”t cut out for police work.
“He and another officer were our mentors as we went through the program He was showing us what was involved with a room to room search. I remember him telling us how important it was to check every area and to make sure that you always had your partner”s blind side. He told my fellow cadet and I that he was going to go into a part of the firehouse and that we should try to find him. All I remember was the feeling of uncertainty, and fright as we crept through the dark firehouse looking for Ricky. My partner and I proceeded to enter this room where Ricky had positioned himself behind the door and got the jump on the both of us,” said Giannini.
“Ricky was his usual calm and pleasant self when he told us that we may have not made it out of that room. I got a sense for the first time the danger that our law enforcement officers go through. Shortly thereafter I left the cadet program. I felt the courage needed to pursue that career was not with me at that time. Since then we stayed friends,” Giannini said.
Sheriff Allman
Sheriff Tom Allman remembered the last time he spoke to Del Fiorentino was at a roll call type situation. Allman praised the deputy for something he had done and said he would like to clone Del Fiorentino.
“The world isn”t ready for that,” Del Fiorentino told his boss.
His final act was driving up face to face with the gunman”s stolen BMW. The information about the case that law enforcement had at the time was that there had been a confrontation at Confusion Hill over the suspect urinating outside, then firing a shotgun at the owner, who shot back with a pistol but everybody missed.
There was no information about any murder in Oregon or an assault rifle, but the apparent killer had two. Del Fiorentino”s killer died of injuries from police gunfire.
Anyone wishing to make monetary donations to the Ricky Del Fiorentino Memorial Fund can do so by contacting or visiting any of the Savings Bank of Mendocino County locations or by mail to P.O. Box 3600, Ukiah, CA 95482 (707-462-6613). He was buried in a private ceremony on Sunday.
Deputy Del Fiorentino is survived by his wife, children (ages 21, 19, 18, 6), step-son (age 29), grandson (age 5 months), step-grandchildren (ages 6, 3), parents and siblings.
