A sign designating a stretch of the Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway in memory of a slain Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was unveiled Thursday in Lynwood.
The stretch of the freeway from the Harbor (110) Freeway in South Los Angeles to the Long Beach Boulevard undercrossing in Lynwood will be known as the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Didier M. Hurdle Memorial Highway.
Hurdle was shot and killed in the unincorporated Los Angeles County community of Willowbrook on Nov. 25, 1977, after he and Cadet trainee Johnny Brown stopped a car containing suspected gang members. A suspect exited the vehicle and opened fire, wounding Brown in a leg and shoulder, but he was able to return fire.
During the gun battle, Hurdle and Brown wounded one of the suspects. Although Hurdle was wearing a ballistic vest, he was shot in the shoulder and the bullet deflected downward into his chest, causing his death, according to the sheriff's department.
Responding deputies were able to follow the wounded suspect's blood trail and apprehend all of the suspects. They were charged with murder of a police officer and possession of PCP.
Hurdle was 36. He had been a sheriff's deputy for eight years.
Hurdle's widow, retired sheriff's Deputy Mary Hurdle, was among those speaking at the unveiling ceremony at Bateman Hall in the Lynwood Civic Center Complex.
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Assemblyman Mike A. Gipson, D-Carson, introduced a resolution to designate the approximately 4-mile stretch of the freeway in Hurdle's memory.
