I-280 rest area renamed after slain CHP officer

Fifty years after a California Highway Patrol officer was gunned down in a Burlingame restaurant, a rest stop off of Interstate 280 in San Mateo County is being renamed in his honor.

Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, Monday joined relatives of the late CHP Officer Dale Krings and dozens of law enforcement officers from throughout the county to announce that the Crystal Springs Safety Roadside Rest Area near Hillsborough will be renamed the Dale M. Krings Memorial Rest Area.

Hill praised Kring’s service, heroism and "ultimate sacrifice,” fighting back tears as he recounted the events that led to Kring’s death on May 22, 1962.

"It was 50 years ago when Officer Dale M. Krings went to work for the last time,” Hill said.

Krings and his partner had gone into the Hyatt House restaurant for breakfast when a man later identified as San Mateo resident Edward Lang Hargrove armed himself with a rifle and opened fire on the patrons, wounding a waitress and then Krings, Hill said.

The wounded Krings faced the gunman and returned fire, fatally shooting the assailant in the head.

Krings was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Prior to the shooting, Hargrove, 47, a former writer and radio news reporter in Los Angeles who suffered from mental illness, had been heard mumbling that he hated police, according to Hill’s office.

At yesterday morning’s ceremony, Hill stood in the sun near a black-and-white photograph of Krings in his CHP uniform, and said that renaming the rest area — which is known for its 26-foot-tall statue of a pointing Father Junipero Serra — will provide a lasting tribute to Krings.

More than a dozen of Krings’ relatives attended the ceremony, including his widow Marjorie and his son, who was just 4 years old when his father was killed.

The renaming of the rest stop was enabled by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 100, which is expected to be signed into law within the next few weeks.