Kelly Ann Bazer was a 28-year-old deputy with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department who was killed on January 13, 1986. She had just finished her sixth day at the Sheriff’s Academy, was off duty and still in uniform when she parked on the street outside her home. Two men who had just robbed a nearby Safeway approached and demanded her car keys. When she tried to get away she was shot in the back at close range; the suspects took her keys and fled in her vehicle.

The suspects abandoned Deputy Bazer’s car shortly afterward and were picked up by an accomplice. A Border Patrol agent noticed suspicious activity, attempted a stop, and a short pursuit followed; the suspects later abandoned that vehicle and ran into a rural area. A multi-agency search led to the apprehension of three men hours later. The shooter and one accomplice were convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery and received sentences of 35 years to life. The third man was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years.

Deputy Bazer is survived by her husband Michael, children Jess and Andrea, her father and stepmother Thomas and Nancy Hotchkiss, and her mother Gail Reed Patterson.