Long Beach Firefighter Mourned

(FOX 11) - One moment he was a veteran firefighter. The next Captain Dave Rosa a 17-year veteran with a wife and two children was fatally wounded by a gunman.

From our vantage point in SkyFOX we could see his family getting into a red vehicle to go to the coroners office; an unimaginable thing to have to do let alone be part of a miles-long procession to that office involving many paying their respects after Rosa was shot to death while trying to save life and property.

Jerry Cushman came by Fire Station 10 where Rosa worked to bring flowers from his garden. He told FOX 11, "...why would anyone would want to hurt these people man? These guys saved my life..." after Cushman had a heart attack. Rosa didn't work at Station 10 then, but he says he would see the Captain from time to time and, like for so many others, the shooting of a firefighter was personal..

Says Cushman, "I'll tell ya they're angels… man… they're angels. And, for them these are unarmed people… these are people out there who do nothing but help us."
David Rosa helped a lot of people like Anna Ogando.

On more than one occasion Ogando says Captain Rosa used his paramedic skills to help her get through epileptic seizures.

She told FOX 11, "he came through to help me out. All of them... all of them... they're good people"

When he wasn't working, the captain was a baseball umpire, a coach and President of the a local Orange county Little League.

Todd Strane is the past president of San Juan Capistrano Little League. The same job Rosa used to have from 2014 to 2015.

He told me that Rosa was one of the good guys and, understandably, he was feeling, emotional about what happened. In fact, he described his friend by saying, "He was one of the best guys. He was always very devoted to Little League, devoted to his family. He loved little league (and) loved helping the kids and was just a really really good guy."

As he choked up Strane added, "He was just a great guy. I'm so saddened was he was a great father too and its just tough,"