Fallen Officer's Headstone Vandalized, Badges Stolen

COLFAX (CBS13) — The grave of a fallen Sacramento Police officer and a Placer County Sheriff's deputy was vandalized, and a disturbing note was left behind.

Investigators say the headstone of officer Bill Bean was desecrated sometime between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. Bean was shot and killed while chasing a suspect in 1999.

"The police are here to protect us. Why are you slamming them? Stop!" said his mother Kim Bean-Toms.

Sixteen years after her son was gunned down on the line of duty, the final resting place of a mean who spent a career fighting crime is now the scene of one.

"This is a cemetery. It is a hallowed ground," she said. "What are you doing with your life that makes it so awful, you come and spend the night in a cemetery to remove badges?"

Vandals pried two badges that once belonged to bean from his headstone. They symbolized his service and sacrifice as a Sacramento officer and a Placer County deputy.

"It doesn't resonate well," said Placer County Lt. Troy Sander. "We would pursue this criminal investigation whether it was an officer or not but it does resonate with us because he was one of ours and one of Sacramento's and he gave the ultimate sacrifice for us."

He says a note was also found.

"The contents were very disturbing and very derogatory toward law enforcement and officer Bean in particular," he said. "It seemed to have a lot of anger behind it and it was extremely inappropriate."

Bean was a Colfax High graduate who was shot and killed in February of 1999 chasing a suspect in Del Paso Heights. He was just 28 years old.

Craig Ballenger is a family friend and Colfax cemetery superintendent. He helped design the headstone and calls the crime cowardly and offensive.

"I don't understand why anybody would step this low to do something like this, but my thing to them would be bring it back. Bring it back to where it belongs," he said.

With no security cameras at the cemetery to lean on for clues, deputies are hoping the public can bring in the leads they need to find who is responsible.

Until then, his mother worries the badges could be used to prevent the crimes her son worked so hard to prevent.

"My fear about these badges, is that someone will pass themselves off as an officer. That scares me," she said.