L.A. County Sheriff’s Department officials honored the life of Deputy Shayne Daniel York on Wednesday, a day that marked the 26th anniversary of the former Pitchess Detention Center deputy’s death during a Buena Park robbery that ended in murder.
Convicted murderer Kevin Boyce and his accomplice Andre Willis entered a salon where York and his fiancee, Deputy Jennifer Parish, were getting their hair cut Aug. 15, 1997, according to information on the Officer Down Memorial Page website.
The suspects, who were Compton gang members in the middle of a robbery spree, ordered everyone to the ground, and took their wallets and jewelry, according to news reports from the time. When Boyce learned that York and Parish were deputies, Boyce executed York by shooting him in the head, saying it was retribution for how gang members are treated in jail. He then said he was sparing Parish because she’s a woman.
Both were later caught in Fullerton after another robbery, that time a local pizza place. York died the day after the robbery at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.
York’s death, because he was targeted for being a deputy, was treated as a line-of-duty incident, according to then-Sheriff Sherman Block from a report of York’s funeral in The Signal.
The jail where York worked, the East Facility at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, dedicated a sign in his honor on Interstate 5, near the facility’s off-ramp.
There’s also a road in the jail that leads to an edifice honoring York, in front of a gym that’s also named after him.
Sheriff’s Department Sgt. James Dodson, who currently works in the East Facility at Pitchess Detention Center where York’s memorial is housed, said the granite stone honoring York was completely refinished last year on the 25th anniversary of York’s death, ahead of the 24-hour vigil that was held at the site.
Boyce, who was 26 at the time of the murder, was sentenced to death for his crime and admitted to San Quentin State Prison in October 2000.
“The inmate shown above is serving a death sentence and is, therefore, not eligible for parole consideration,” according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records available online.
Willis was sentenced to 160 years as a 30-year-old accomplice. CDCR records indicate he was given a parole consultation Jan. 7, 2020, which declared parole eligibility as starting in July 2025, and identified a tentative date for a parole suitability hearing in January 2026.
For additional information, visit CDCR’s Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services website, cdcr.ca.gov/victim-services, or call toll-free 1-877-256-6877.
