Wife of slain Oakland police officer tragically killed in car crash
OAKLAND — Angela Dunakin, the wife of one of the four Oakland police officers fatally shot in March 2009, has died from injuries suffered in a car crash as she was returning from visiting their youngest son in college.
Dunakin, 52, of Roseville, was the wife of Oakland Police Sgt. Mark Dunakin. Mark Dunakin along with Sgt. Ervin Romans, Sgt. Daniel Sakai and Officer John Hege, were fatally shot on-duty on March 21, 2009. The couple had three children, who are now adults.
Angela Dunakin was traveling back from Chico State University on Sunday evening, stopped at a red light on Highway 99 in Yuba City when a large truck crashed into her car from behind. She was pronounced dead Monday at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. Her organs were donated and saved at least four lives, her friends and family said.
Her kidney went to her oldest son’s girlfriend’s mother, who somehow, was a perfect match, said her daughter, Sienna Dunakin.
“…It makes us so happy, that she’s going to have a lot more years to her life,” her daughter said.
Her heart went to Washington, her liver to Southern California; and her tissue will also be donated.
“I’m glad my mom was able to give us that gift in the face of tragedy,” Sienna Dunakin said in an interview Friday.
“She encouraged us to stay in school and that the most important thing is to be kind, and to have empathy toward others,” she said.
The couple had three children together; the oldest, Anthony, 25, was living with her and his 10-month-old daughter, Riley. Their daughter Sienna, now 24, had just started her second year of law school in Ohio. Their youngest son, Patrick, 19, is in his first year at Chico State, according to a fundraiser by the Peace Officers Research Association of California. The fundraiser is hoping to raise $30,000 for the couple’s now-orphaned three children.
Angela Dunakin had just welcomed their first grandchild in January, she told this news organization in March — the 10-year anniversary of her husband’s death.
Her daughter said that her mother’s granddaughter was her life. Even though she’s in law school in Ohio, her mother would take time to video chat with her, and baby Riley.
“My mom just wanted us to be happy. To be happy and to feel safe,” Sienna Dunakin said.
Her daughter said her mother stepped up as a single mom, giving her and her siblings space and the right tools to grieve the loss of their father. Even when faced with so many hardships, she persevered.
She said her parents met during a computer class at Chabot College in the 1990s. Her mom would bake cookies for her dad, and the two had their first date during St. Patrick’s Day, she said. Baking was one of her passions, along with cooking, that she passed onto her children.
She loved country music, and getting the perfect manicure. Sienna said she and her siblings joked that even in the car crash, her mother did not break a nail.
Nikki Romans, the widow of the slain officer Ervin Romans, flew to California on Monday upon learning of the passing of her dear friend. Romans had last seen her friend in September, during a retreat for widows who lost their law enforcement husbands in St. Louis, Missouri.
When Romans heard the news of her friend’s passing, she said it was like “life draining out of my body.” She said besides her husband’s death, this was the second most devasting loss in her life.
The two would attend every memorial service every year for their husbands. They also attended big events for each others children — graduations, games and even vacationed together. This March the two women, who didn’t meet until their husband’s funerals in 2009, got matching tattoos: four birds in flight on their shoulders, one for each fallen officer.
“Angela saved my life these last 10 years and I saved her life, it’s just that bond,” Romans said.
Renee Hassna, the executive director of the Oakland Police Officers Association and close friend of Angela Dunakin said her friend would go up and visit her son in Chico often. As moms do, she would bring him cookies, do his laundry, and would take him to the grocery store.
“Her children were her world,” Hassna.
Hassna said when Angela Dunakin’s husband was killed, she put her children first.
“Her children looked up to her and respected her immensely,” Hassna said. “Her children said she taught them strength and how to be resilient.”
“Angela put everything she had into her children and worked hard to make sure her kids were taken care of. Now they are left alone needing to figure out their lives and how to move forward with either of their parents in their lives,” said the association in the fundraiser’s description.
Born in San Jose on Jan. 1, 1967, Angela Dunakin was raised in foster care and was adopted at age 3 by her parents Galen and Maxine Schwab. She is the youngest of four siblings. She grew up in El Cerrito and graduated from Albany High School in 1985.
She became an Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy and retired in 2000, said her daughter. Her partner, Deputy John Monego, was killed in the line of duty in 1998 at an Outback Steakhouse in Dublin, her daughter said.
Staff writer Harry Harris contributed to this story.