‘As close to perfect.’ Loved ones honor fallen Pines officer in annual memorial ride
Pembroke Pines officer Charles “Charlie” Herring loved many things — his wife, his kids, riding his motorcycle, watching Westerns — but, namely, coffee.
So much so, that some of his final moments were spent drinking cafecito at La Carreta, minutes before he’d pull out of the Cuban restaurant’s parking lot and be killed by a falling palm frond while riding his bike on Feb. 9, 2023.
“I’m not gonna lie, that day ... I can relive it like it was yesterday,” his widow, Sylvia Herring, told the Pembroke Pines News.
Three years later, friends, family and former collegaues of Herring are still gathering at La Carreta as the first stop on their annual memorial ride to honor the fallen officer’s legacy.
Over a dozen cars and motorcycles caravaned out of the Cuban restaurant, led by a police escort, on Tuesday, Feb. 3, visiting Herring’s grave, the crash site and Smoke by the Water, a Weston cigar bar the officer loved.
A husband, father of four and the Pembroke Pines Police Department’s sole line-of-duty death, losing Herring has left a gaping hole in his community.
But his wife hopes he’ll be remembered for what he added to people’s lives.
“He was as close to perfect as I’ve ever met,” she said. “Obviously nobody’s perfect, but he was one of the most selfless, caring, giving ... a family man.”
The accident, the man behind the badge
A rare, midday call from Charlie Herring’s best friend, PPPD officer Edward Hooper, was the first thing that alerted Sylvia Herring that “something was not good,” the day her 54-year-old husband died.
“I’m coming to get you. ... Charlie was in an accident,” she remembered hearing while at Driftwood Middle School, where she works as an Exceptional Student Education support facilitator.
Herring, part of PPPD’s motorcycle squad, was riding his bike near NW 184th Avenue and Sheridan Street when a palm frond fell and struck him, causing him to crash into the road’s center median.
He was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital, where he died of his injuries “despite all life-saving efforts,” reads PPPD’s obituary for the fallen officer.
“They told me that they were working on him, but I had a feeling that it was already not good,” Sylvia Herring said. “I walked in (to the hospital), and it was like you see in the movies, a line of cops. ... I remember sitting in that chair and praying harder than I’ve ever prayed in my life.”
An Army verteran, Herring joined the department in 2002 as a field training officer and served in several units — Crisis Response Team, Mobile Field Force, Traffic Unit and the DUI Task Force — before landing in PPPD’s motorcycle squad.
He was known as the “muscles” everyone could count on in a pinch, according to officer Andrew Feldman, who met Herring while working overnight shifts at the start of his police career.
“Charlie was the typical police officer that was very proactive. He’d like to go out and find some stuff and get into the action,” Feldman told the Pembroke Pines News. “If ever needed muscles, I knew my partner, Charlie, would be there in a heartbeat.”
But for Hooper, who’d jokingly deem himself Herring’s “work husband,” knowing the man behind the badge was the real prize.
“We did everything at work together, from going to get coffee, having lunch, writing tickets together,” he said. “But also everything off duty, between families, getting together. ... He was always about being around people and having a good time.”
Both officers — along with the department as a whole — have always been like family, Sylvia Herring says, and have taken to “standing in” as a role model for her kids in Herring’s absence.
Pembroke Pines police became staples in the honor roll ceremonies of her daughter Emma Elizabeth, 13, and donned their Class A uniform at her son Evan Anthony’s, 21, high school graduation in the months after his death.
The Herrings receive invites to the department’s holiday party each year and have most of their handyman needs supplied by their next-door neighbor, PPPD officer Lorenzo Curbelo.
“They really do take care of you,” Sylvia Herring said. “When they talk about a blue family, they really do, and Pembroke Pines definitely has gone above and beyond.”
‘I want them to remember’
Herring may be gone, but his presence still permeates much of everyday Pembroke Pines.
In May 2025, two years after her husband’s death, Sylvia Herring lobbied city officials to install “Troy belts,” — a nylon, green band that wraps around palm trees to catch falling fronds — on several medians to prevent accidents similar to Herring’s.
Sections of NW 184th Avenue — near the accident site — were renamed “Officer Charlie Herring Avenue” in 2023.
A memorial erected on the median he crashed into still sees friends and family lay out large picnic blankets during Christmas, Father’s Day and Herring’s birthday to share a “coffee with Charlie,” his wife says.
But above all, Sylvia Herring sees his legacy live on in the fallen officer’s famed character.
“They all loved him and that’s what I want them to continue to do,” she said. “I don’t want them to forget those stories. I want them to remember. I want them to share those stories with the new officers, and maybe they’ll still learn something from him, even though he’s not physically here.”
