Homero Ortiz-Martinez

Puerto Rico Police Department — San Juan, 127

Accident

End of Watch October 7, 1985

Age 32

The Vigil Panel 130 ›

Gender Male

Incident Service The Sacrifice Department 363

Incident

Policeman Homero Ortiz-Martinez drowned while working on efforts to recover a patrol car from the Coama River during Tropical Storm Isabel. Sergeant Francisco Diaz-Melendez, Policeman Pedro Burgos-Lacourt, and Policeman Herminio Lopez-Pilar drowned when their patrol car fell through a broken bridge into a swollen river during Tropical Storm Isabel. The officers were responding to a distress call while driving along PR-52 Luis A. Ferre Expressway. When they arrived at marker 78.1 they did not realize the bridge had collapsed completely, and their vehicle fell into the Coamo River along with other vehicles. It was concluded that heavy rains caused the bridge to collapse and poor visibility obscured the missing portion of the bridge.

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Permanent identifier: BO-US-PR-D6A756F9
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Added to badge.nw: April 2, 2026
Last updated: July 23, 2026

Honored here by 1 sentinel - 1 tribute.

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Tributes

I never knew you. I am standing here anyway.
Policeman Ortiz-Martinez served with the Puerto Rico Police Department.
Thank you for your service to the San Juan community. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Policeman Ortiz-Martinez.

— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993

Agency

Department Puerto Rico Police Department

Location San Juan, 127

Platform Identity prpd.pr.us.gov.nw

Service Record

End of Watch October 7, 1985

Age 32

Gender Male

Incident Details

Cause Accident

Policeman Homero Ortiz-Martinez is one of 10,088 officers lost to accidents in the line of duty across the full record of this memorial — 31% of all 32,508 officers honored here.

In 127, 85 of 388 officers were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 21.9% of this state's fallen. That is 9.1 percentage points below the national rate of 31%.

At Puerto Rico Police Department, 77 of 364 officers on record were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 21.2% of this agency's fallen.

Puerto Rico Police Department

of 364 officers

21.2% Accident

127 — Statewide

of 388 officers

21.9% Accident

Nationwide

10,088

of 32,508 officers

31% Accident