By Aaron Martinez
El Paso Times
EL PASO, Texas — The legacy of fallen El Paso Deputy Peter Herrera will live on as his family works to ensure his service and sacrifice will never be forgotten.
“I just want Peter to always be remembered and never forgotten,” Herrera’s mother Esther Herrera said. “Peter loved this community and all he wanted to do since he was little was to be a law enforcement officer. This was his dream and we are so proud of everything he did. People talk about the criminals all the time, but we rarely hear about the officers like Peter who have made so many sacrifices for their communities.”
Now future generations will know the impact on the community Peter Herrera, who was killed during a traffic stop March 22, 2019, in San Elizario, had as Del Valle Middle School renamed its library Wednesday to the Deputy Sheriff Peter Herrera Library.
“I think that this will inspire children that come into this library to see how great my son was in providing public service to all of the community,” Herrera’s father, Luis Herrera, said. “It is a very overwhelming feeling of the fact that my son is being honored for this beautiful library here, I can’t find the words to express the hurt that our family has been going on for the last two and a half years.”
Peter Herrera, an 11-year veteran with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, attended Valley View Middle School from 1996 through 1998. The school combined with Camino Real Middle School in 2019 and was renamed Del Valle Middle School.
Paulina Hijar, from left, Richard Hijar Martinez, Esther Herrera, Joyce Frontz and Valerie Sanchez attend the dedication ceremony of the Deputy Sheriff Peter Herrera Library at Del Valle Middle School library Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Herrera died March 24, 2019, two days after he was shot in the line of duty.
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“As the leader of this school, it is important that part of the culture we establish for our students is to recognize the values and lessons we can learn from the amazing alumni who came before them,” Del Valle Middle School Principal Amy Bejerano-Alarcon said. “Because of his bravery, dedication to his work and family, and his community, we will name our campus library after him to honor his memory for generations to come.”
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and the El Paso community continue to mourn the loss of Peter Herrera and will never let his sacrifice be forgotten, El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles said.
“It is the responsibility of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office to ensure that our fallen hero, Peter J. Herrera, is remembered both within the agency and by the community he served so bravely,” Wiles said. “Locally, there have been memorials dedicated to Deputy Herrera in addition to the various community events that take place on a routine basis.”
Born to be a sheriff
Peter Herrera will be remembered for his love of his family, his devotion to servicing his community and bring a smile to everyone he met, his family said.
“For 35 wonderful years we had Peter,” Esther Herrera said. “I’m thankful to God for that. He was premature. I could have lost him then, but I got 35 wonderful years. Peter loved life. He liked to make everybody laugh and smile. He was a character. It was never a dull moment with Peter.”
Since the moment he was born, Peter Herrera instantly had an impact on his family, his aunt, Paulina Hijar, said and it wasn’t long before he knew what his path in life would be.
“Since he was little he knew he wanted to be a sheriff,” Hijar said. “He used to wear cowboy boots at about two years of age, with little shorts and a sheriff badge. He would put his toy gun in his boots. It’s like he was born to be a sheriff and he was just an amazing person. He turned out to be an amazing young man.”
And when he realized his dream and became a deputy, Hijar said he looked out for his community.
“He would take the shirt off his back for anybody, anybody he didn’t care,” Hijar said. “A stranger came up to me one day and said he knew Peter. He told me Peter was patrolling around a park when the park was full of kids with kites, but not all the children had kites. Peter left and came back, opened his trunk with a bunch of kites. Every child had a kite now.”
The family is now working on creating an annual kite flying event in honor of Peter Herrera.
Living without Peter
Peter Herrera’s memory stays strong with his family, but those recollections are also a pain that will never get easier or go away.
“It’s hard,” Hijar said. “Peter was my sister’s oxygen. My sister will never be the same. She lived for him.”
Peter Herrera was always smiling, laughing and playing jokes on his family, they said.
“He was a character,” Hijar said. “There are so many amazing moments with him. We miss him. He was the most amazing person. We cry every day.”
Family tries to make sense of circumstances of deputy’s death
On March 22, 2019, Peter Herrera pulled over a vehicle for only having one headlight and an expired registration, Wiles said at the time of the incident.
The driver of the vehicle allegedly pulled over, got out of his vehicle and opened fire on Herrera on Chicken Ranch Road near Socorro Road. Herrera was shot several times. The driver and his passenger then fled the scene. Both suspects were later arrested and charged in connection with Peter Herrera’s death.
A driver stopped, tried to help the deputy and called 911.
Border Patrol agents, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene and took Peter Herrera to a hospital.
He died two days after the shooting.
As Peter Herrera remained at the hospital, Esther Herrera said she was at peace with what could happen to her son.
“I wasn’t in the hospital that day,” Esther Herrera said. “I came home to pick the dog up, but then this door just flew open. I was with my friend and we just looked at each other and I didn’t want to move. I knew in that moment. I knew. She then gets a call and she says, ‘Esther, we need to go. They need you at the hospital.’ I said, ‘I already know. I already know.’ But I kept that peace within me.”
Esther Herrera said she will never understand the actions of the suspects.
“I was so sorry for what they did to him,” Esther Herrera said. “The way they did it to him. There’s moments where I get a lot of tears. I say it’s a cascading waterfall because I get a lot of tears. There’s times I can’t talk about it because I still don’t and will never understand why they had so much anger towards my son when he was trying to save them from getting maybe in a car crash because they were missing a headlight.”
She continued, “And then he was greeted with gunfire. They shot at him 15 times. I’ll never understand why.”
As the cases against the alleged shooter and his accomplice await trial, the family waits for justice as they talk every now and then with officials from the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office.
The COVID-19 pandemic and motions filed by defendants including requests to change lawyers have continuously delayed the criminal trial.
El Paso County District Attorney’s Office officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The family declined to comment on the criminal cases against the suspects.
While the criminal cases may be pending, Peter Herrera’s mother said she has forgiven the suspects.
“I’ve already had peace since the day they did that to my son,” Esther Herrera said. “I told Wiles while at the hospital when I hadn’t been able to see my son yet, I told him I forgive (the alleged gunman), which is true. And I continue to forgive him and I’ll let justice do whatever they have to do, but I forgive him.”
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