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San Luis Obispo police detective killed in the line of duty identified

May 11, 2021

Detective Luca Benedetti

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo city officials announced today the name of the detective shot and killed while serving a search warrant as 37-year-old Luca Benedetti.

Shortly before 5 p.m. on Monday, six officers attempted to serve a search warrant on Edward Zamora Giron, 37, at his apartment on Camellia Court, regarding a spree of commercial burglaries. Officers knocked and announced they were there, but Giron did not open the door.

After an extended amount of time, officers broke the door down to find Giron armed and lying in wait. Giron fired at the officers, who returned fire and retreated.

Detective Steve Orozco

During the shootout, two detectives suffered gunshot wounds.

Benedetti died at the scene. Medical personnel transported officer Steve Orozco to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, where he was treated for his injury and released Monday evening.

Giron died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound and other injuries consistent with being struck by the officers’ return fire. Inside the apartment, officers found stolen property linking Giron to the commercial burglaries. Giron had a record of drug, alcohol and burglary crimes, but no violent criminal history.

Benedetti is survived by his wife and two young children. He joined the San Luis Obispo Police Department in 2012, after serving for four years with the Atascadero Police Department.

While members of the SLO Police Department grieve and work through this tragedy, allied law enforcement agencies in the county will respond to calls for service in the city, said acting Chief Brian Amoroso.

“I had the distinct pleasure of working with Luca over the past nine years,” Amoroso said. “He was a dedicated officer, a talented detective, a proud member of the San Luis Obispo Regional SWAT Team, and most importantly, a loving husband and father. The entire department is grateful for the outpouring of support we have received from the community.”


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Support the SLOPD this Friday, May 14th:


6:30 PM – Downtown SLO Cruise. Pedestrian Blue Line and American flag-waving along Higuera at Osos.


7:30 PM Mission Plaza – Candlelight vigil with speakers.


More information: http://www.facebook.com/sonja.christine.91/posts/10224811398368415


17

My office manager, who is a retired police office, just told me that there is not a special CalPers survivor benefit package for the spouse/family of a fallen police officer!!!

That’s outrages, I’m having trouble getting my head around that:(

I see that his contemporaries have set up a GoFundMe account that is doing quite well, but nothing in comparison to the financial loss to this poor family:(


11

He might get a death benefit (not my phrasing) through PORAC. Hopefully someone at SLOPD is clued into Tunnel2Towers.


https://t2t.org/fallen-first-responder-home-program/


They’ll pay off his mortgage. Funded to a great extent by sales of the Rush Limbaugh Stand Up For Betsy Ross apparel.


5

I want to add to my statement.

I guess after watching cop shows on TV, I thought the spouse of a Police Officer killed in the line of duty was compensated with a Pension as well as other means!

Instead the spouse receives what was paid into the Pension account, plus interest without any of the matching funds from the municipality:(

No long term retirement Pension because he didn’t live long enough to retire!

So when I saw the GoFundMe site I thought it was a nice gesture, but maybe unnecessary, I was way wrong, This is the money that will allow this poor woman to financially survive while grieving for a short period of time.

Lose your spouse, become a single parent and try to live one day at a time:(

This is a tragedy on top of a tragedy:(


3

Boldguy

Det. Benedetti had enough time in to be vested in his pension, so there will be a payment. I think it’s probably a safe bet that he’d chosen one of the Survivor Benefit options available through CalPers. Depending on what his specific pension formulation was, his wife will (we hope) receive what is essentially a prorated pension payment. Obviously she’d trade that for having her husband back, but I believe she should at least get a small amount each month. As I posted above, they qualify for assistance through Tunnel2Towers Foundation, so I hope his colleagues will utilize that option also.


3

Yes, he was vested. His kids will collect either $600 or $900 a month in social security until age 21 or 26 under federal law. All they have to do is apply. There is a provision also under the CSUs that his kids will receive free tuition at those institutions. Outside of the monetary aspect, what a loss to his family all because other lives matter over LEO’s. The family should sue the perpetrators family for their loss and grind them into oblivion financially. But again, what a huge loss to their family.


3

We honor the victims. Now let’s talk about the killer. Who was this guy? Was he here legally? How did he get the weapon? Who else was in his life? Let’s unwrap this shall we?


-20

This is so terribly sad… Luca was an especially good man. One helluva an IDPA competitor too! RIP!


41

When is Heidi going to initiate that police de-funding?


-6

So very sad to hear of his passing. God Bless his family and those close to Officer Benedetti.


40

Prayers for Detective Benedetti and his surviving family. May he Rest In Peace as a hero to our community.


95

RIP Officer Benedetti,

We are praying for your Family and Colleagues.

Also for the full recovery of your fellow Officers who were all touched by this Tragedy.

I pray our entire community comes together to help heal all us.

This County is to good to keep getting pulled apart by Criminal activities.


81

Tragedy. But a “significant amount of time” was obviously not enough. Who made the decision to break down the door against a suspect who was obviously armed? The one thing that the cops have on their side is time. Why not exploit that advantage to the hilt. Two men dead over some burglaries. That’s just wrong.


-137

I get your point…. Since this wasn’t a drug bust where the suspect could have flushed the evidence down the toilet. I’m not sure why the officers needed to bust the door down on a burglary warrant. I totally understand officers didn’t expect suspect was lying in wait with a rifle. However couldn’t the PD surround the apartment and announce on a loudspeaker for suspect to come out. Or even to have the house under surveillance and wait for the suspect to come out on his own going to his car, for example. This is no doubt horrible and tragic and will be reviewed for many many months by law enforcement to try to prevent this from happening again.


-55

Or, what about breaking down the door without charging forward and then sending in a drone or some kind of robot? I just don’t get the gungho crap when you’re dealing with people who are probably mentally unstable.


-52

They can’t afford the drone or the robot due to the fact you guys want to defund them.


24

How would they know the suspect was “obviously armed” before they broke down the door? The Sheriff stated today that the suspect had no firearms registered to his name, had no history of violent crimes or mental illness, and did not respond to them knocking on the door. “Lying in wait” refers to the act of hiding and waiting for an individual with the intent to kill or inflict serious bodily harm to that person. So please tell us exactly how it would have been “obvious” that he was armed given he was hiding and the police may not even have known that he was home before they attempted entry?


71

Oh, come on, there are more guns than people in this country. I would think the police should suspect the guy had a gun, if not 10. If they thought otherwise, then that’s utter stupidity. Even probation officers show up for routine checks with guns and tactical gear.


-77

Our local probation department seems to spend most of its resources on new graphics for its cruisers. They’ve really had some duesies in the past.


Not sure why they have any markings at all, come to think of it?


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