Placerville Cowboy Honor Ride for Fallen Deputy Cancelled

PLACERVILLE (CBS13) — Plans to honor a fallen hometown hero have run into a roadblock.

Norm Nather says it's a tradition. The Cowboy's Honor Ride would have drawn law enforcement and other riders through downtown Placerville on a memorial horseback ride for fallen El Dorado County Sheriff's deputy Brian Ishmael.

"Placerville's beautiful, it's got great history, great living history, it's the perfect location," Nather said. "They told me they could handle it I believed them. It's their town."

Nather says Placerville police agreed to the permit allowing 400 riders and 50 wagons then made last-minute changes for 200 riders and wagon, forcing him to cancel the event.

"I told them there was never a possibility of me getting it down to 200 horses and they knew that. I think they made a chess move at the last minute to get us to cancel," Nather said.

Kim Nida with the Placerville police said Nather knew the limitations and said he had an application for a special event, but not an actual permit.

Originally, Nather planned to have Main Street and connecting roads closed between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., but police made the changes in the interest of public safety.

"I appreciate that he wants to open it up to everyone and a type of ride like this absolutely, but not in our venue. We can't that many horses coming down Main Street and Placerville Drive," Nida said.

Cowboys Honor rides have been held for Tara O'Sullivan in Sacramento and Natalie Corona in Arbuckle. Some Placerville locals say Deputy Ismael deserved the same.

"When a man lays down his life for his fellow man, then how can you not honor that? That is the biggest disgrace to me," Placerville resident Lawrence Martin said.

Others say there were too many questions.

"It's a weird position to take because you want to honor a fallen officer, you want to be supportive of it, but at the same time you don't want to confuse tourist and whatnot that don't know what is going on and say 'Why is downtown closed from 11-3?" Tony Windle said.