PASADENA, Calif. — A fallen Pierce County deputy was honored Monday at the 2024 Rose Bowl parade as part of a float promoting organ and tissue donation.
Dominque “Dom” Calata was shot and killed in the line of duty in March 2022. The Pierce County Sheriff's Department (PCSD) said in a release that Deputy Calata helped save four lives after his death through his organ donation.
Calata was nominated to be honored by LifeCenter Northwest, a local organ donation organization.
In addition to Deputy Calata's lungs, kidney, pancreas and liver, PCSD says his brain was donated "to a scientific study for TBIs and suicide rates in military personnel at the University of Washington."
The deputy's family was invited to attend the annual Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, Calif. on Monday.
Calata died after being shot during a SWAT operation in Spanaway on March 15, 2022.
The South Sound Gang Task Force was serving a warrant for second-degree assault on 40-year-old Jeremy Dayton. The task force had asked for help from the Pierce County Sheriff's Department's SWAT team due to Dayton's prior felony convictions, Tacoma police confirmed.
During the operation, gunfire was exchanged between Dayton and law enforcement, Haddow said. Calata and Sergeant Rich Scaniffe were shot. Dayton was killed at the scene.
The procession remembering Calata drew more than 500 vehicles and saw hundreds of people line up along the route to pay their respects.
"Dom's actions to engage the suspect and go right at him and make sure nobody else got hurt or killed is what cost him his life. But everybody else and any of these guys would have done that, and he did do it and made the ultimate sacrifice," Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer said.
Calata served with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department for six-and-a-half years and was assigned to the patrol division of the Edgewood Police Department. He was also a U.S. Army Veteran and served in the National Guard for the past seven years.
Calata was married and had a 4-year-old child.