Slain San Diego officer to be honored for service

[August 12, 2011]  SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Jeremy Henwood went to Iraq twice as a Marine and returned in February from a combat tour in one of Afghanistan's most troubled regions. But it was at home in San Diego where he was killed, shot in the head in an unprovoked attack during routine police patrol.

The 36-year-old police officer will be honored for his service at home and overseas on Friday. California Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to attend.

Henwood, a Marine Corps Reserve captain who had been a police officer for four years, died Sunday. Police say Dejon White flashed his headlights behind Henwood's patrol car, as if to seek help, then pulled alongside the officer and shot him.

Police shot White to death in a confrontation minutes after Henwood was hit on Saturday. They said White, 23, shot another man in the parking lot of an In-N-Out Burger restaurant shortly before the attack on the officer.

"We will always remember him as a patriot and hero," Police Chief William Lansdowne said Thursday. "His service to the people of San Diego will never be forgotten."

Henwood joined the Marines in 1995 and went on two tours in Iraq in 2003. In Afghanistan's northern Helmand province, he led about 160 Marines in Bravo Company in the Combat Logistics Battalion II, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Lt. Col. Brian Wolford, his commanding officer in Afghanistan, said Henwood led an 11-mile-long convoy on a four-day trip in November to bring supplies to a U.S. base in Musa Qala. His group struck about 15 improvised explosives and survived small-arms attacks.

"The terrain was brutal," said Wolford, who is now based in Washington, D.C.

Henwood also devised new tactics to escort Afghan government vehicles in an especially hostile area. Wolford called it "an extremely difficult task with extremely high payoff."

The decorated Marine from Bexar, Texas, was due for a promotion to major on Sept. 1.

He was survived by his parents and two younger siblings.

[Associated Press; By ELLIOT SPAGAT]

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