San Diego sheriff’s deputy added to law enforcement memorial 76 years after his death

Three more names are on the wall.

Three more names for San Diego to remember.

Three more names of people who died while protecting their community.

San Diego Police Department Officer Austin Machitar, CBP Air Interdiction Agent Jeffrey Kanas and San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy Herbert Sibert were solemnly added to The Memorial outside the San Diego County Administration Building during a ceremony Wednesday.

Officer Machitar died in August when a speeding car crashed into his police cruiser. CBP Agent Kanas died in December when his helicopter crashed near Potrero.

However, Deputy Sibert died in a car accident in 1949, when his daughter was only 4 years old.

“She remembers the night that they showed up at their house and basically told her mom that he’d been killed,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Chantler said.

Sgt. Chantler said Detective Sibert’s death may have been overlooked because Sibert was driving his own car when he died. His modern-day detectives started digging.

“Probably within about 24 hours, they had his whole history,” Chantler said. “He had been in the Airbourne and received a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart during World War II.”

And as a detective in the 1940s, Sibert had to drive his own car for work. Chantler said Sibert died while tailing a robbery suspect.

Sibert’s name was etched into The Memorial wall outside the County Administration Building Wednesday, 76 years after his death. His 4-year-old daughter Sharon Sibert, now 80, was there to see his name added.

“It feels like we found somebody, like a brother that we had lost, and we’re able to really give him the honor that he deserved,” Chantler said.

He’s one of the three names on a wall for all of San Diego to remember.