Simmons 'a professional police officer'

The LAT's Al Seib captures the memorable image of a sad day for the LAPD. It's posted on the Times website, along with a profile of slain officer Randal Simmons by Jill Leovy and Andrew Blankstein. Simmons graduated from Fairfax High, has a son who's 15 and a daughter who is 13, and played on the department's Centurions football team. He also was a varsity cornerback for Washington State.

From the piece:

[Former partner Gregory] Grant said Simmons was a physically imposing officer -- "an Adonis" -- known for his superb physical fitness, for connecting with people and for maintaining his calm. Size alone was not the reason he had so few confrontations on the job. "We just talked to people. We had them laughing on the way to jail," Grant said. "He was really able to communicate with people -- able to extract information from unwilling people. He made them comfortable, and put humanity into it."

When he encountered resistance, he appealed to people's sense of right and wrong, Grant said. Only the most pathological suspects did not respond, he said.

Trust funds have been established for the Simmons family, and for wounded officer James Veenstra, through the Los Angeles Police Federal Credit Union.

Earlier today:
Remembering Randy Simmons
Randal Simmons, LAPD veteran killed in action