Alvidrez says she often re-lives the night she and her husband Steve were riding his motorcycle, listening to the Eagles when she felt a big push.
"I looked down the road, saw the light and cars coming toward me, then I ran off the road,” she said. “That's when I started looking for Steve, that's when I found him."
51-year-old Steve Alvidrez died on the scene after a car crashed into the couple from behind on Highway 99 south of Delano. Ramona was hurt, but had no life threatening injuries, just severe road rash.
The driver fled the scene and is still on the loose.
"Just understand that you are at fault, you made a mistake, you took away our leader and my hero,” said Steven Alvidrez, Alvidrez’s son. “You will be held to answer."
Steven is a deputy with the Kern County Sheriff's Department. It is where his father kicked off his career in law enforcement more than 25 years ago before becoming police chief of the Kern High School District. He greatest memory was having his father pin his badge on his uniform when he graduated from the academy.
"Not only was he an officer, he was a leader, a hero, he saved lives,” said Alvidrez’s daughter Kristin Alvidrez. “On his legacy, I have no words, he was just so many things."
The family will hold their 1st Annual Texas Hold’em Tournament on June 29th at the Golden West Casino to raise funds for a special scholarship in Alvidrez’s name. The money will help students studying law enforcement and criminal justice.
Alvidrez taught a criminal justice course at Kaplan College, and he was also a youth football and baseball coach. Hundreds honored Alvidrez last year at a candlelight vigil and close to one thousand people were at for his funeral at St. Francis Catholic Church.
This Father's Day, the Alvidrez family plans to go to mass and then Hillcrest Cemetery to pay their respects to the man they say was the ultimate people person.
"Not a day goes by that I don't think of my dad,” Steven Alvidrez says. “This upcoming Father's Day is going to be really, really tough for our family.”
For more information about the tournament or the Chief Steve Alvidrez Foundation, you can call 342-1976.
