Friday marks 17 years since the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station suffered the tragic and sudden loss of one of its own, Deputy Hagop “Jake” Kuredjian.

Kuredjian, 40, was killed August 31, 2001, while serving and protecting the residents of the Santa Clarita Valley. He was fatally shot after responding to a call of shots fired in Stevenson Ranch where Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents were serving a search warrant.

Kuredjian was a 17-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and had been assigned to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station since 1995.

He was an avid motorcyclist and after serving in many other capacities at the station had been assigned as a motor officer in the Santa Clarita Valley for six months prior to his untimely death.

In 1989, Deputy Kuredjian was awarded the Sheriff’s Department’s Gold Meritorious Conduct Medal by former Sheriff Sherman Block for saving the life of a woman clinging to a small tree branch atop a cliff in the city of Malibu.

“Helping others was something that came naturally to Jake and that was what he was doing at the very moment he was so tragically taken from us all,” said SCV Sherriff’s Station Captain Robert Lewis, who personally knew Kuredjian. “We mourn his loss, along with the many other people in our community whose lives were touched by Jake.”

As a tribute to their fallen partner, all on-duty deputies assigned to the SCV Sheriff’s Station wore long sleeve Class “A” uniforms with a tie on Friday.

Read more about the events of Aug. 31, 2001.