Full Notification

by Lieutenant John Stanley, LASD
Recent historical research has resulted in the discovery of the sacrifice of Deputy Sheriff Adolfo Celis.
(Photos from that era - Click on the link at the bottom of this message)

It was a cruel and ironic end for a young man whose life was dedicated to public service. Deputy Sheriff Adolfo Celis described by the Los Angeles Times as, “intrepid, brave and persistent [who] rarely failed to bring in his man,” died when his rifle fell from the buckboard he was driving near the San Fernando Mission and discharged, killing him.

Celis was en route to Little Tujunga Canyon following up on a lead he developed that a murder suspect named Tomas Serrano was hiding in the area. At the time of Celis’ death, it was reported that he and the two deputies who were accompanying him were looking for cattle rustlers, but this was only a ruse to prevent Serrano from knowing the real reason for their presence in the area. Serrano was arrested the following month, thus bringing closure to Celis’ distinguished career as a peace officer.

In the Los Angeles Times’ biographic sketch of Adolfo Celis, the paper noted that he was “connected with the Sheriff’s office and the police force since he was eighteen… and in these positions has been shot at times without number, but has never been scathed by a bullet from anyone else’s gun.” Connecting Celis with law enforcement from eighteen was perhaps a bit disingenuous. Like many lawmen of the period, Celis went through rough patches in his youth where he sometimes found himself skirting the boundaries of the law.

Though it is possible that Adolfo’s career as a peace officer began sooner, the first record of him acting in this capacity was from a newspaper account in September 1875. The Los Angeles Herald noted that Celis served briefly as a City Marshal following the retirement of another officer who was wounded in the line of duty. His next documented appearance as a crime fighter is in 1878 when he became a deputy sheriff during Sheriff Henry Mitchell’s two-year term.

On June 17th, 1878, Celis and Sheriff Mitchell engaged in an intense gun battle with a desperado named Miguel Sotello. The Herald described Sotello as a “notorious horse thief and former member… of the Vasquez gang. Deputy Sheriff Celis and Sheriff Mitchell confronted Sotello outside a saloon in Verdugo Canyon. As the two lawmen approached Sotello on horseback, the outlaw whirled in his saddle and emptied the barrels of both of his revolvers at them. One of the bullets passed through Celis’ hat. Deputy Celis was armed with a rifle and returned fire striking Sotello in the right side knocking him from his horse. Sotello died the next day from his wound.

As a deputy, Adolfo Celis served Sheriff Mitchell with distinction. His performance in this role did not escape the attention of the Los Angeles County Grand Jury. Part of this body’s 1879 report commended Celis. The Los Angeles Herald printed a summary of the document on November 14th and noted that the Grand Jury, “expressed their especial appreciation of the courageous conduct and services of Deputy A. Celis in the discharge of his dangerous duties.”

In 1880, William R. Rowland returned to the office of Sheriff for the second time. It appears that Celis served briefly under Rowland before leaving his service and joining the Los Angeles Police Department. He remained with the LAPD until Alvan T. Currier was elected Sheriff and named him as one of his deputies when he took office in January 1883.

In addition to his role as a peace officer, Adolfo Celis was also a member of the Los Angeles Fire Department and served with Confidence Engine Company Number 2. He was also very active in Los Angeles’ Mexican American community and in the local politics of the Democratic Party. In September 1875, he served on a committee organizing the celebration of Mexican Independence Day. Then in July 1879, he was elected President of a group known as the Junta Patriotica de Juarez. In September 1882, he served as a delegate of the First Ward of Los Angeles at the Democratic Party’s County Convention.

Adolfo Celis was an excellent peace officer. His star was on the rise. He was the one who developed the information on the whereabouts of Tomas Serrano that put him on the road that fateful morning of April 18th, 1883. Two men accompanied Celis in his search for Serrano that day. They were Special Deputy Sheriff Silvestre Altimirano and Deputy Sheriff George E. Gard. Gard was one of only two men who served as Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (1880-1881) and Sheriff of Los Angeles County (1885-1886).

The three men stopped to shoot some game and make breakfast about a mile from the San Fernando Mission. When they resumed their journey, Celis was driving the buckboard and Gard was on the seat next to him with Altimirano in the rear. Deputy Gard noticed Celis adjusting a coat or blanket that was on the seat between them. He then heard a gunshot and assumed it was one of Celis’ pistols firing. He asked Celis to be a little more careful lest he make his wife a widow. Celis did not reply, but fell backward a few seconds later, mortally wounded. He was dead within minutes. Celis’ rifle was recovered on the trail behind them. It is believed that it fell from the buckboard when he adjusted the blanket and discharged when it struck a wheel.

Adolfo Celis was the first Mexican-American deputy sheriff in the history of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department killed in the line of duty. He left behind a widow, Mary, and two children.

When news of his death reached his brothers at Confidence Engine Company Number 2, the fire bell was tolled and both engines at the company were draped in mourning colors.

His body was taken from the undertakers to Confidence Engine House Number 2. As testimony to Celis’ popularity, both as a peace officer and firefighter, his pallbearers came from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Police Department, and the Los Angeles City Fire Department. The long procession that escorted his body to the Church of Our Lady of the Angels from the firehouse included several pieces of fire apparatus from numerous fire houses throughout the city as well as carriages containing friends and mourners from the agencies with which Celis served. The current and two former Chief Engineers of the Los Angeles City Fire Department were part of the funeral procession.

A month after Deputy Celis’ funeral, Deputy Gard apprehended Tomas Serrano without incident. It was only then that the true reason why the three peace officers were in the San Fernando area the morning the tragic accident occurred was revealed.

Deputy Celis died too young. Given his popularity and competence as both a peace officer and firefighter there seems little doubt that he would have risen to a higher position in one or both of the disciplines in which he served. His loss will be recognized in May 2014 at the county and national peace officer memorials.

Photo Credits:
(Photos from that era - Click on the link at the bottom of this message)

*The configuration of buckboards in the 1880s is typical of the one depicted. The driver and passenger rode on an elevated seat or bench high above the flatbed behind them.


*The photograph of the San Fernando Mission is circa 1875. There was little change in the area by 1883.

*The photograph showing the procession of the Los Angeles Fire Department is from the 1870s and was taken at Main and Spring Streets. It is possible that Adolfo Celis may have been a member of the LAFD at this time.
- All photographs are from the Los Angeles Water and Power website, WaterandPower.org



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(Photos - Click on the link below)