EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — In Deputy Peter Herrera’s family home, photos of him hang on the walls and an American flag is folded laying on his bed in his old room.
Herrera was killed after being shot during a traffic stop in San Elizario back in 2019.
A photo of Herrera taken in his mother’s kitchen is displayed in the house. Herrera’s mother says the photo was taken by one of his fellow deputies because he would always bring his co-workers to eat at his mom’s house.
“I think maybe two or three guys… He’d bring six, sometimes more. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t make enough for everybody,'” said Esther Hijar Herrera while laughing about the memory of her son.
She says some of his fellow deputies have stopped by her house and she lets them go into his old room where is badges hang on the wall.
She shared a memory of her son when he was just 4 or 5 years old when he grabbed a badge from a store.
“He grabbed my hand, ‘Mom, Mom’ and I go, ‘What?’ and he says, ‘Mom, look, look.’ So there I go, there was a badge in a little box, which I still have. And he would wear that badge. And then as he got older, he’d say, ‘I’m going to protect the president of the United States one day.’ And I said, ‘Yes, you will,'” Hijar Herrera said.
She said when her son was much older she suggested he become a Sheriff’s deputy, saying she loved how clean-cut the Sheriff’s deputies looked in uniform.
Herrera’s mother remembered the first time she saw her son in his uniform.
“I pressed his uniform. But what kept me up to date is now I understand the weight of the badge,” said Hijar Herrera.
“Though my son lost his life, he never buckled under that weight,” she said later.
The man accused of killing Herrera, Facundo Chavez, was sentenced to death on Aug. 10.
While the trial is over, his mother says there will never be closure.
“We will never heal from this. There’s no closure, never will be, but I continue to have faith in God and that’s what gives me peace,” Hijar Herrera said.
