|
Information on Daivd Marks comes from the "Officer Down Memorial page/Oakland Police Department" , www.odmp.org.
David was born June 1,1947 and died on Feb. 7, 1974.
"Officers David Marks and David Branhan were shot and killed with Officer Marks' service weapon after a suspect gained control of it.
The officers had been dispatched to a middle school on a call that a disorderly person was on the school grounds and fighting with school staff. When the officers arrived they located the man and took him to a conference room. The man began to struggle with the two officers and gained control of Officer Marks' service weapon and shot them both. The man was apprehended at a nearby apartment building after he was shot and wounded by other officers.
The suspect was convicted of two counts of second degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive terms of 15 years to life on May 29, 1975.
Officer Marks had been a member of the Oakland Police Department for two years, and is survived by his mother."
|
Gregory Swope
Dave and I were good friends. We met at Oak Grove Intermediate. At Pleasant Hill High School we hung out together with mutual friends. We worked and partied for a year after high school, and then we were drafted into the US Army on September 20,1966. We did our basic training at Fort Lewis, Washington. Our bunkbed was on the second floor at the very end of the Barrack. Dave had the bottom bunk and I had the top bunk. I was always stepping on Dave to get up to my bunk but he never got mad at me for doing this. He was such a mellow mannered guy.
At the completion of basic training Dave got orders to go to Fort Polk Louisiana for infantry jungle training and I got orders to go to Fort Sill Oklahoma for artillery training. At the completion of our advance, individual training Dave got orders for Vietnam and I got orders for South Korea. We remained friends till his death.