VIDEO: Deputies place American flag over the body of Deputy Oscar Rocha, form honor guard and salute him. CLICK HERE if you’re having trouble viewing media on a mobile device.
WALNUT CREEK — Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy Oscar Rocha loved the Giants and San Francisco 49ers. He also loved his job. When he died from COVID-19 complications Thursday night, he had his badge in his hand, just as the roar of the motorcycle honor guard outside his hospital room began.
His wife heard the motorcycles outside and told her husband they had arrived. In that moment, he passed, she said.
“They were ready to take him home,” said his wife, Maureen Ennor Rocha, on Friday.
Motorcycle officers from the CHP, Walnut Creek police, Contra Costa County Sheriff’s and Concord police showed up at the John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek to escort Rocha, 57, to the coroner’s bureau. They formed an honor guard as deputies took his body inside, Sheriff Greg Ahern saluting his colleague.
“That healed such a big part of my heart last night,” his wife said of seeing the outpouring of support.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office is treating Rocha’s death as having died in the line of duty — the first for the department related to coronavirus pandemic. Rocha contracted the novel coronavirus while on duty at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, during the last uptick in cases in June, said Sgt. Ray Kelly on Friday.
“Our hearts are heavy today. But we’re glad Oscar isn’t suffering and he’s at peace,” Kelly said.
A senior member of the sheriff’s office, Rocha had been with the department for 25 years. He mostly worked at the Rene C. Davidson courthouse in Oakland as a bailiff in various courtrooms or at the security entrances to the courthouse and adjacent county administrative building.
Kelly, who attended the police academy with Rocha, called him loyal and dependable. He was a friend, Kelly said, and a cigar and scotch aficionado.
“The best way to describe Oscar, he’s one of the people you meet in life, he is just steady. He’s just a reliable person, dependable,” said Kelly. “He never complained, or called in sick or made excuses. He was loyal.”
“He was never rattled,” his wife said. “That’s why he was so successful. He. able to handle anything, and he never lost patience.”
Rocha grew up in San Ramon, and most recently lived in Danville with his wife. The two had known each other since they were 14 years old and attended California High School together in San Ramon. They reconnected nine years ago.
“I never knew he had a crush on me,” said Ennor Rocha. “Through the magic of Facebook, almost 30 years later, he reached out.”
“That’s Oscar for you,” she said. “He took his time with everything.”
He proposed to her at a San Francisco Giant’s baseball game, in front of 46,000 other people on the Jumbotron.
“I was shocked, I had never been so surprised in my whole life,” she said. “It was really cute.”
The two were married on New Year’s Day in Hawaii in 2014. Ennor Rocha said they had gone for vacation, just the two of them, and decided to get married that trip.
Rocha loved sports so much he even named their English bulldog “Bochy” after former San Francisco Giant’s manager Bruce Bochy. They had season tickets to the 49ers, and he also followed Stanford University football. He loved live events in general; the two were constantly going together to see live music concerts, his wife said.
“The worst part is when he died yesterday, I was thinking, his life is just gone. All the things he loved and did, gone,” she said in an interview Friday.
Rocha became sick with COVID-19 within the past month and had been in the hospital for more than three weeks. When he realized it was serious, he called 911. His wife also contracted the virus, and she herself was in the hospital for two weeks, but recovered.
He was admitted to the intensive care unit and put on a ventilator. It was a fight for his life.
“It just shows you how this disease creeps up on you, and begins to smother you,” Kelly said.
Ennor Rocha warned her husband to take the virus seriously. When he tested positive, he should have gone to the doctors right away to listen to his lungs, she said.
Kelly described Rocha as a tough person; although not a young man, he was generally healthy. But COVID-19 just “ravaged” his body and respiratory system, Kelly said. Unfortunately, because the virus is so contagious, he had to spend much of the time in the hospital alone. But every night nurses would hold the phone to his ear so his wife could speak to him.
On Thursday night, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office chaplain Jayson Landeza was able to go to the hospital to give Rocha, a Catholic, his last rites. He died peacefully with his badge and rosary beads in his hands.
“Oscar’s passing is a reminder to everyone no matter who you are, that this virus is no joke,” Kelly said.
District Attorney Nancy O’Malley released a statement Friday on Rocha’s passing. She said he was known to a majority of the district attorney’s office because of his role in the courts, and she and her staff were sad to learn of his death.
“We all knew him to be a fine deputy and an all-around nice man. He always had a smile on his face and was helpful to the public as they came into the court. On behalf of the District Attorney’s Office, I express our heartfelt condolences to and prayers with his family and to his fellow deputies in the sheriff’s office,” O’Malley said.
Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods also issued a statement, offering condolences to Rocha’s family and colleagues.
“We are very sorry to hear about Deputy Rocha’s passing, and our condolences go to his family and colleagues at the sheriff’s office,” Woods said. “We have been working tirelessly to protect everyone in the courts and the jails, but this virus is incredibly difficult to contain. We must stay vigilant and we must work together to protect our staff and the community. COVID-19 does not discriminate. Anyone is vulnerable at any time.”
Deputy Public Defender Jeff Chorney knew Rocha personally.
“He always treated me and my clients with respect,” Chorney said. “Things can get tense in court, but he stayed mellow. I’m sorry this happened to him, and I’m sorry for his family and colleagues.”
Santa Rita Jail is in the midst of a spike of inmates positive with the coronavirus, there are a total of 104 active cases as of Friday. A total of 48 jail staff or contractors, including deputies, have also contracted the illness. In June, the sheriff’s office saw its first big spike in jail staff contracting the illness; 12 currently have it.
One of the Santa Rita Jail inmates who contracted COVID-19 said Rocha sometimes worked in the kitchen unit. The inmate, Gilbert Martinez, was a kitchen worker himself and was one of 40 inmates who tested positive last week with the coronavirus.
Rocha leaves behind his wife, Maureen; son, Alex, of Mississippi; parents Oscar and Rosario Rocha, of Oakley; and three sisters. Funeral arrangements are pending.
