HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — One of the thousands of people who will honor a fallen Douglas County sheriff’s deputy on Friday knows the pain his family is going through all too well.

Christine Sandoval will be at the funeral for deputy Zackari Parrish, who was gunned down in an ambush attack on New Year’s Eve morning.

Almost 21 years ago, her brother, Ronald Deherrera, was a Denver police officer who was out of the academy for just two days when he was killed in a car crash while on duty.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think of my brother and that he’s not with me,” Sandoval said.

“For a while, the memories they come and they go and they come, especially at times like this, when another officer loses their life in the line of duty.”

Sandoval has those feelings now, in the wake of Parrish’s death. But she’s going to face them at Parrish’s funeral, just as she has at other law enforcement officer funerals in the area.

“Once this is said and done, you’re still left with your grief,” Sandoval said. “You still have to go on without these people. Unfortunately, it’s hard. It’s really hard.”