Off-duty OC deputy dies in Elsinore vehicle crash

By City News Service

The collection will be preserved for academic access, and eventually for public access, through the Claremont Colleges Library, where archivists will organize and catalogue the material that spans six decades.

The year after her husband was killed in 1963, she moved with her three children to Claremont and enrolled at Pomona College. She ran for U.S. Congress two years after graduating from college and helped launch the National Women’s Political Caucus, taking on prominent roles in Southern California.

She continued to seek a conviction of her husband’s assassin, which came in 1994, more than 30 years after her husband’s death. It was the subject of the movie “Ghosts of Mississippi.”

She was elected to serve as chair of the NAACP in 1995.

In 2012, Evers-Williams was the first woman to give the invocation before a presidential inauguration

Pomona College

before millions of people across the country and the world. She was later portrayed by Jayme Lawson in the movie “Till” in 2022.

“I’m thankful for my life, including all of the hardships,” said EversWilliams, who turns 90 on March 17 and is retired and living in Southern California. “I have learned so much. I have learned tolerance. I have learned love, genuine love of people. I have learned how to get knocked down and get back up without blaming anyone.”

The collection includes photos of Evers-Williams with presidents John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, buttons and pamphlets from her 1970 run for Congress, transcripts and correspondence from her 2007 testimony before Congress, and correspondence related to her preparation from the 2012 Obama inauguration.

“God has given me the ability to overlook all of the hurts, harms and dangers and look toward the future and what that could bring and what I might contribute to that future. I’ll leave it at that,” she said.

The collection contains personal items, her Pomona College ID card, a hard hat from her time as a Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner and the dress she wore while performing piano pieces at Carnegie Hall. The collection focuses on her life after moving to California in 1964.

She graduated from Pomona College with a degree in sociology in 1968 and credits her college experience with changing her life.

“I don’t want to get too emotional,” EversWilliams said. “But it was Pomona College, it was the teachers here who helped me move ahead and come out of this feeling of drowning * And it was my being here at Pomona with the instructors here and the other people who did not smother me. They gave me space. But they surrounded me by love, understanding and saying, ‘Yes, you can.’”

Funeral services were pending Friday for an off-duty Orange County sheriff’s deputy who was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Lake Elsinore.

The fatal crash occurred about 5:15 a.m. Thursday in the 25000 block of Railroad Canyon Road, near Canyon Hills Road, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.

Fire officials said paramedics reached the location a short time later and pronounced the victim dead at the scene. Video from the location showed a vehicle that appeared to have struck a tree in the roadway median. It was unclear what caused the crash.

Orange County officials identified the deputy as Brian Haney, who worked in the San Juan Capistrano area and was on his way home when the crash occurred. Officials said he had a wife, Leslee, and a month-old son, Cole. Haney’s age was not immediately available.

“I’m grateful for his service, and my heart goes out to Deputy Haney’s loved ones,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley posted on social media. “His young family will need our strong community support through the grief.”

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said Haney was hired by the department on Aug. 19, 2016, working stints at the Theo Lacey Jail and then in San Juan Capistrano, where he was a member of the Critical Incident Response Team.

“His brothers and sisters in our department described him as a quick learner, hard worker and team player,” Barnes said. “He was known for his infectious smile, humorous and timely wit, and love for his peers.”

Haney was also a member of the Air Force Reserve, Barnes said

“Our focus will be on Brian’s loved ones who lost a husband, a father, a brother, and a son this morning,” the sheriff said. “We are also focused on our department family who are recovering from our loss of a partner.”

San Juan Capistrano Mayor Howard Hart wrote online that he was “shocked and deeply saddened” at Haney’s death.

“I am especially devastated to learn that he leaves behind a loving wife and a newborn baby to whom he was returning home after protecting and serving our community when this terrible accident occurred,” Hart wrote. “I know my San Juan Capistrano neighbors will join me in prayers of comfort and support for Deputy Haney’s family and loved ones.”

Dozens of the fallen lawman’s comrades gathered at the crash scene and saluted as his body -- draped in an American flag -- was removed from the vehicle and placed into a hearse. Just after 11 a.m. Thursday, a law enforcement procession began, transporting the deputy’s body to the Riverside County coroner’s facility in Perris.