RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A 40-year-old Riverside County sheriff’s deputy killed in a collision involving his patrol motorcycle on the Riverside (91) Freeway was remembered Thursday as an “inspiration” to those around him and a lawman “passionate” about his job.
“He had a bigger than life personality,” Joseph Corlew said of his older brother, Deputy Timothy Corlew. “His humor could lighten any situation. He was charismatic but could be mischievous. Tim would rather have us reflect on the wonderful times and experiences we had together.”
A remembrance service was held for the fallen motorcycle deputy Thursday morning at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, where hundreds of law enforcement officers from the Inland Empire and elsewhere gathered, along with Corlew’s friends and family.
He was fatally injured on the morning of Jan. 8 along the westbound 91 at La Sierra Avenue in Riverside.
“I’ll miss him being there at night in that big chair,” his teenage son, Riley, said during a tribute, standing beside his mother and Corlew’s wife, Mercedes.
“He was so excited to be a motor officer. He just loved riding his motorcycle, handing out tickets,” the teen said to laughs in the packed church. “My dad talked to everyone, all the time. He was a great guy. He just wanted the world to be calm. He wanted peace. And now he has that.”
An honor guard stood watch on either side of Corlew’s flag-draped casket just below the speaker’s podium, where a motor officer helmet from the sheriff’s Jurupa Valley station, where he was assigned, also sat on display.
“I was his supervisor for the last couple of months,” Sgt. Andrew Sullivan recalled. “He was passionate about traffic. But, I thought, it’s just traffic; it’s not like real police work.”
After the laughs receded, Sullivan continued, choking back tears, “Tim was my motor, No. 56. Tim, I thank you for being you and always having a smile on your face and being my friend.”
Sheriff Chad Bianco, who knew Corlew years before he was elected to lead the sheriff’s department in 2018, described the fallen lawman as “an inspiration to all of us, as he made the day a little brighter.”
“He was personable and truly had a love for life and the people around him … and he gave more warnings than tickets,” the sheriff said, drawing chuckles. “Tim lived a lifetime in 40 years. We will miss him, but we must not forget him.”
Pastor Greg Laurie, Harvest’s founding minister, acknowledged “there is great sadness now.”
“We don’t know why Tim was taken so suddenly. We don’t know why the tragic accident happened,” Laurie said, relating the loss to that of his own son, Christopher, who was also killed in a collision on the 91 freeway, in 2008. “We know he’s in the presence of God, and we know we can see him again if we put our faith in Jesus Christ.”
Laurie recalled that Corlew attended Harvest as a boy, joining Christopher in “taking candy from my desk.” The pastor also noted that Corlew led the funeral procession bearing the casket of his fellow motor patrolman and friend killed in the line of duty, 32-year-old Deputy Isaiah Albert Cordero, in January 2023.
“Those two partners are reunited again,” he said.
Around noon, the procession for Corlew departed Harvest for Olivewood Memorial Park, where a private burial service for the lawman was planned.
California Highway Patrol Inland Empire Division spokesman Officer Dan Olivas said that at 5:35 a.m. on Jan. 8, Corlew was traveling in the HOV lane at an unconfirmed speed when he encountered “traffic ahead … stopped across all lanes.”
“For reasons still under investigation, the deputy collided with the rear of a Toyota (Lexus), and he was ejected from his motorcycle onto a Hyundai sedan,” Olivas said.
Riverside Fire Department paramedics reached the location within minutes and attempted life-saving measures, after which Corlew was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to Olivas.
He said the Lexus driver suffered minor injuries and was taken to the same hospital for treatment. The occupant of the Hyundai was not hurt.
The CHP’s Riverside office spokesman, Officer Javier Navarro, told City News Service it was “unlikely any criminal charges will be coming out of this down the road, based on what we know.”
Sheriff’s officials said Corlew was hired in February 2016, and following his graduation from the sheriff’s public safety academy later that year, he was assigned bailiff duties in the court system. He was transferred to patrol operations at the Jurupa Valley station in August 2019. Corlew completed Motor School in June 2022 and deployed as a motorcycle patrolman immediately afterward.
The department’s last line-of-duty death occurred in May 2023, when 27- year-old Deputy Brett Michael Harris was responding to a call for backup, going through a San Jacinto intersection, when his patrol SUV was side-impacted by a sedan, resulting in fatal injuries to the lawman. The other driver suffered minor injuries.
Harris was the third in a string of on-duty deaths that occurred over a roughly four-month span. Preceding him was 30-year-old Deputy Darnell Calhoun, who was gunned down in January 2023 in an alleged ambush perpetrated by a felon involved in a domestic violence incident in Lakeland Village.
Prior to that, on Dec. 29, 2022, Deputy Cordero was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Jurupa Valley by a felon who had been granted early release from jail.
