You are walking on treacherous ground when you ask a retiring police officer what was the worst thing that happened to him in his career. Throwing caution to the wind I asked that very question to Capt. Gary Ficacci who retired from the Chula Vista Police Department after 27 years of law enforcement service.
“The worst and best all happened on the same case,” he said. I knew an explanation would be coming. “On June 20, 1991, in the early morning hours, Ilyana Smith and I were dispatched to an industrial complex on Bay Boulevard. The call was supposed to be a transient who was down. This usually meant a drunk had passed out.
“It was no transient. It was 9-year old Laura Arroyo who had been murdered right there. She had been stabbed repeatedly, and so forcefully that the stabbing instrument went all the way through her little body and actually chipped and scarred the sidewalk beneath where she lay.”
A 9-year old murder victim would be etched in any cop’s memory forever, not to mention the ghastly way little Laura had been killed. I knew why that was the worst. It gave me chills thinking about it. How did the “best” part figure in?
“Bob Conrad, our cold case detective, opened up the case and began trying different things; scientific things that weren’t available when Laura was killed. Conrad worked with the SDPD lab and they discovered some newly developed DNA findings that linked Manuel Bracamontes to the killing.”
I had been gone from CVPD for a few years when Laura was killed but from contacts I knew that Bracamontes was one of the original suspects. However, one needs proof to get a conviction, and there just wasn’t enough back then.
“The best part happened in 2003, when I was in the Robbery-Homicide Unit. Bracamontes was arrested and, being the supervisor, I was able to sign my name of approval at the bottom of Bracamontes’s arrest report.”
Bracamontes was found guilty in early 2005 and sentenced to death later that year. It was a bittersweet addition to a police career.
I hate to see Ficacci retire, but for selfish reasons. He was always prompt, candid, and a pleasure to interview. After graduating from Chula Vista High, Gary played football first for Southwestern, then for Long Beach State before moving so SDSU where he earned a degree in psychology. After two years working for the sheriff in the jail, CVPD hired him. His rise through the ranks was steady and regular. He made sergeant in 1999, lieutenant in 2004, and captain in 2008.
He said, “It’s been an incredible ride. I’ve done every job I wanted to do in my career. It’s time for someone else to take over. My goal was to be a homicide detective, and that was realized. I eventually headed up the homicide unit as a sergeant, and later as a lieutenant.”
Ficacci also worked narcotics, was assigned to a U.S. Customs Task Force, and did 14 years on the SWAT team, four of those as the Commander.
In keeping with his penchant for sports, after his football days were over, Gary played lacrosse, flag football, and roller hockey. I played one year with him on the CVPD basketball team. I can say that as a basketball player, Gary was a good football player. When he went up for a rebound bodies scattered, including those of his teammates.
Ficacci won’t be spending all his days on a fishing boat or the golf course though. On January 2, 2015, he starts as the Director of Security for all of the local Sharp Hospitals.
Gary and wife Jennifer, who recently embarked on a new real estate career, have two adult children. Let the scrambling begin for a new captain.
