Sergeant Donald Sowma was shot and killed after he and other officers responded to a silent burglar alarm.
While he was searching the premises he was shot by a suspect. The suspect surrendered to a SWAT team six hours later.
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While responding to a silent burglar alarm call in the early morning hours of November 19, 1976, Sgt. Sowma who was the shift supervisor was shot once by Bobby Joe Denney, who was hiding inside an art gallery next to the medical clinic he had been attempting to burglarize for drugs and money.
A street near the Cypress Civic Center is named in his memory.
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In the early morning hours on Nov. 19, 1976, Denney, the son of an Oklahoma county sheriff, burglarized a medical clinic in Cypress in an attempt to steal prescription drugs.
Armed with a gun, he broke in through a locked window, triggering a silent alarm. Sowma, a 12-year veteran, was one of the first on the scene.
The sergeant heard a noise, and as he approached a doorway waving his flashlight, Denney fired a single shot, hitting him in the chest. Denney delayed rescue attempts by firing a second shot at the responding officers.
Officers risked their lives to retrieve Sowma and rushed him to a hospital, where he died.
Denney was taken into custody following a six-hour standoff in which he fired a third shot at officers, authorities said. Authorities said Denney and his wife had booked a hotel room directly across from the medical clinic. A police scanner and narcotics were found in their possession.
Denney was convicted of first-degree murder in 1977 and sentenced to life in state prison. His trial took place while there was a national moratorium on capital punishment. A year later, the death penalty was reinstated for anyone convicted of killing a police officer in the line of duty.
Sowma, a married father of four, was remembered Thursday as a great supervisor and police officer.
'He was one of the guys who loved being out in the field,' Timney said. 'He was promoted to the position of lieutenant but less than a year later he requested to go back to a sergeant rank so that he could be on patrol and work in the field with his guys.'
He is the only Cypress police officer to be killed in the line of duty. A street near the police station was named for him.
After the hearing, Sowma's children gathered in a parking lot just outside the prison and thank members of the Cypress Police Department.
'Its so hard for our family every time we have to come out here,' said son Jack Sowma, 59, of Lake Elsinore. 'It brings back all those memories.
Inside, he had told the two-member board how his father's death impacted his family, including how his mother 'never recovered that was the love of her life. She died two years ago having never loved again. I just let them know what this has done to our family and our lives.'