The San Francisco Police Department held a memorial for Officer James Guelff Friday evening, 26 years after he was killed in the line of duty.
Dozens of San Francisco police officers came together to salute Guelff.
A carjacking suspect wearing body armor shot and killed Guelff, the first officer on scene at Pine and Franklin Streets on Nov. 13, 1994.
“You know, the bullets were flying all over this block,” said retired Officer Lorraine Lombardo. “I mean, they called it the '25 Minutes of Terror'.”
Lombardo worked with Guelff and said the pain of losing one of their own has a lasting effect.
“He wasn’t just a great cop,” she told KCBS Radio. “He was a great person. He was a great man. He was a great father.”
Guelff was a 10-year veteran who always put public safety first.
“He liked being the first one there,” Lombardo said. “He liked arriving as number one because he wanted to get the bad guy. He wanted to do his job.”
Richard Cairns, who was captain of the Northern Station at the time, told officers that this will always be sacred ground.
“This is the San Francisco Police Department that makes you proud, with Jim and all the other people on the wall,” he said. “Don’t ever forget that.”
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