Veteran Corrections Officer Killed In Vegas Massacre Remembered As A Hero
BURBANK (CBSLA) — A veteran corrections officer killed in the Las Vegas massacre was welcomed home in true hero fashion Saturday.
Family and colleagues of Lt. Derrick "Bo" Taylor gathered at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport, where his body was flown Saturday morning.
On the tarmac, members of the color guard draped a flag over his casket; corrections officers then carefully loaded it into a van as part of a procession in his honor.
Taylor's neighbor, Sara Martin, paid tribute with her husband; they were among the many supporters who stood with firefighters on various overpasses to salute Taylor as his motorcade drove from Burbank to a mortuary in Grover Beach.
"We're pretty shocked, you know, it's hard," Martin said. "It hits really close to home because it's literally next door and it's just so awful.
Taylor was a 29-year veteran of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
He recently worked at the Ventura Conservation Camp, where he led inmates fighting wildfires. Co-workers, who declined to go on camera, described him as an esteemed colleague and friend.
His neighbors described him as someone anybody would want to live next door to.
"He was a very nice man, and he'd always speak in passing by," Vernell Reese said.
Taylor and his girlfriend, Denise Cohen, of Carpinteria, were among the 59 people shot and killed at the country music festival in Las Vegas.
Taylor is survived by two sons.
