A corrections officer working at a state prison in Norco who had contracted the coronavirus became the first staff member of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation suspected to have died of the new disease, officials said Sunday, May 31.
Firefighters and law enforcement officers joined a procession in honor of Danny Mendoza, 53, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officer who died Saturday, May 30, after contracting COVID-19. (Photo courtesy of the California Department of Corrections)
Officer Danny Mendoza, 53, had recently tested positive for coronavirus, and later died on Saturday, May 30, CDCR spokeswoman Dana Simas said. He had been with the department for 24 years, and began working at the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) in Norco in 2018.
“I am heartbroken by the loss of one of our CRC family members,” CRC Warden Cynthia Tampkins said. “Officer Mendoza was loved and respected by his peers, he will be greatly missed.”
Mendoza was honored by a procession of firefighters and law enforcement officers during a vehicle procession on Saturday.
CDCR officials declined to discus how and where Mendoza he may have contracted the virus. The exact cause of his death will be confirmed by Riverside County Coroners office.
Ten employees at CRC had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday, according to statistics released by the CDCR. One of those patients has since recovered and returned to work. As many as 309 people working at state prisons have contracted the virus so far, and 161 of them have returned to duty.
There have been no reported cases among inmates at CRC as of Sunday. Meanwhile, 1,701 state inmates were infected with coronavirus in California as of Sunday. So far nine inmates, who had all been housed at the California Institution for Men in Chino, have died of COVID-19.
