Feb 11

Feb 11 North Sacramento baseball field renamed for fallen officer Tara O'Sullivan

Keeping Sacramento safe, Giving back to the community

Members of the Sacramento Police Department join the Sacramento City Council and the parents of Tara O’Sullivan in the chambers on Tuesday to honor her memory.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg and members of the Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday, Feb. 11 to rename the Woodlake Park Baseball Field as Tara O’Sullivan Memorial Field.

O’Sullivan, 26, a rookie officer with the Sacramento Police Department, was fatally shot by a gunman while responding to a domestic violence call in north Sacramento..

Tara’s parents Kelly and Dennis O’Sullivan attended Tuesday‘s meeting and were praised by Mayor Steinberg and Council members for their strength and for how they consoled and lifted others up while grieving themselves.

“You more than anyone have suffered a profound loss,” Mayor Steinberg said. “I know it’s small comfort, but the entire Sacramento community, starting with the men and women in uniform, but the entire capital city, also suffered a tremendous loss with the death of Tara last summer.”

Tara O’Sullivan

O"Sullivan was a proud Sacramento State graduate and part of the first class of the school’s Law Enforcement Candidate Scholars Program. In remembering Tara, classmates and colleagues have recalled her exuberance, kindness and dedication to the profession — along with her physical fitness,. O’Sullivan holds the department’s record for the longest plank, having held the position for 26 minutes, seven seconds. The gym at the Sacramento Police Academy has also been renamed in her honor.

Councilmember Allen Warren, who represents the District 2 community in which Tara worked, said community members — some of whom had had their own encounters with law enforcement — came to him grieving after Tara was killed.

Warren called O’Sullivan “a champion for our community.”

“She was precisely the type of police officer I want to be policing District 2,” he said.