PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The grieving continues at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office headquarters as Deputy Ignacio "Dan" Diaz was moved from St. Mary’s Medical Center to the medical examiner's office at PBSO headquarters on Gun Club Road in West Palm Beach.
Region C Palm Beach County
TRAGIC: 3rd Palm Beach Co. deputy passes away after devastating wreck
The grief extends to not only the local law enforcement community but also the federal as the three deputies worked hand in glove with the Secret Service on the Trump Protection Detail.
"These motor officers are, quite frankly amazing,” former Secret Service agent Tim Miller said. “I mean, they are planning every route. They're identifying danger points, they're stopping traffic. They're having to travel, sometimes at crazy speeds to get up to the next intersection to block it off. And most folks don't understand this is a very big deal, and any president knows the level of commitment it takes for a motor officer to be assigned to protect the motorcade routes.”
From motorcades to blocking travel routes, these deputies worked very closely within the layers of protection for the President-elect.
"They have been supporting the president, not just now that he's the president-elect, but you know, for the entire time he came out of the office and came down here,” said Miller. “And that's an even smaller group of folks that are protecting him when you're a former president. And so that interaction would have been even more intimate. And I'm sure their hearts, like all of our hearts, are broken.”
Secret Service challenge coins were left behind at the scene of Thursday's crash among patches, flags and flowers all left in the days following that tragedy.
Palm Beach County
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Miller tells WPTV Reporter Michael Hoffman that, because agents don’t wear uniforms, they use the coins as a way to respect and honor those who receive them. He adds that the work these deputies did was invaluable, and their loss has left the community in shock.
“You’re working with these guys every day, and they become family,” said Miller. “And so the Secret Service is hurting right now, on a level that only law enforcement members can understand.”
Miller says it’s in times of tragedy when words can mean the most, encouraging everyone to thank a deputy for their service when you next see one.
Palm Beach County
Deputy Ignacio 'Dan' Diaz remembered as 'absolutely amazing person'
Education
Deputy Ralph Waller was part of 'school community' at H.L. Johnson Elementary
Palm Beach County
