Luis Carlos Lopez

El Paso Times

Memorial services for the motorcycle officer who died after a chain-reaction crash last week will be Thursday. His burial will be Friday.

A viewing and rosary service for fallen Officer David Ortiz will be Thursday at Sunset Funeral Home, 9521 North Loop Drive. Services will be from 4 to 9 p.m. A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m.

Police officials said Ortiz will be memorialized in a Mass that will be celebrated beginning at 11:30 a.m. Friday at Saints Peter and Paul Church, 673 Old Hueco Tanks Road. After the Mass, an escort will lead mourners to Mount Carmel Cemetery, 401 S. Zaragoza Road.

The tentative funeral procession route could lead to several street closures between 12:30 and 2 p.m. in the Lower Valley, police officials said.

After leaving the church, the funeral procession will go west on North Loop Drive, south on Yarbrough Drive and then east on Alameda Avenue. The procession will pass by Ortiz's alma mater of Ysleta High School on Alameda Avenue.

The procession will then go south on Zaragoza Road to Mount Carmel Cemetery.

El Paso police officer dies after accident

Ortiz, 45, had been with the El Paso Police Department for nine years and was a traffic officer assigned to the Pebble Hills Regional Command.

Ortiz had been hospitalized since the afternoon of March 10 when he was hit from behind by a car while he was stopped at a red light on Lee Treviño Drive at Vista Del Sol Drive. He died Monday.

Police said the public is invited to attend the services but said there will be limited parking.

Ortiz was hit by a Kia Optima driven by a 45-year-old man, who was also hospitalized after the crash. The man's name has not been released.

The accident still is under investigation, and no one has been charged.

The Police Department said in a news release that Ortiz is the 31st El Paso police officer to die in the line of duty. He is the second El Paso police officer to die in a motorcycle accident in less than a year.

Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381; llopez@elpasotimes.com; @lclopez4 on Twitter.

Staff writer Daniel Borunda contributed to this report.