Detective Joe Ruiz Landin

Joe Ruiz Landin

Detective Joe Landin and Detective Monty Conley were killed when their vehicle was broadsided by another vehicle that ran a stop sign on Avenue 120 in Pixley, California.

At 12:40 p.m., the undercover detectives were returning to the sheriff's office headquarters after participating in a narcotics investigation and heading east on Avenue 120. After exiting Highway 99, the driver of a car failed to stop and hit the officers' unmarked patrol car. The force of the impact pushed the patrol car off the road, flinging the car airborne and causing it to roll down the highway embankment. When their vehicle stopped, both Detective Landin and Detective Conley were trapped under their car. They died at the scene.

The driver of the vehicle that struck them was convicted of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and sentenced to five years.

Detective Landin was a United States Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran who had served with the Tulare County Sheriff's Office for four years and previously served with the Woodlake Police Department. He was survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter, his parents, three brothers, and a sister.