“He left for work. We were texting about our wedding, how many people we were going to invite. Then that night I’m planning the funeral,” Brittany Lindsey says. “I feel like it’s a nightmare and I am waiting to wake up.”
A woman went from planning her wedding to planning her fiancé’s funeral.
Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer planned a surprise beachside proposal. Exclusive video shows him getting down on one knee and asking the love of his life, Brittany Lindsey, for her hand in marriage. Lindsey said yes.
But four days later, Clinkunbroomer was shot and killed.
“We didn’t get to really even get to spend like time just us two together to like celebrate,” Lindsey tells Inside Edition.
Lindsey says the romantic proposal was just one example of the deputy’s many thoughtful and loving ways.
“I just miss him like I don’t think there’s ever going to be a day or time where I don’t miss him,” Lindsey says.
The Los Angeles deputy was ambushed earlier this month. Authorities say Clinkunbrommer was sitting in his police cruiser at a traffic light when he was shot by a driver in a black car.
Police arrested Kevin Salazar, 29, for murder. In court, Salazar pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
“He left for work. We were texting about our wedding, how many people we were going to invite. Then that night I’m planning the funeral,” Lindsey says. “I feel like it’s a nightmare and I am waiting to wake up.”
The pediatric ICU nurse says she learned the devastating news while driving on her way to work.
“He was innocently sitting in his car at a red light and someone just took his life. Like, he wasn’t doing anything wrong, he was doing everything right,” Lindsey says.
LA District Attorney George Gascón announced he will not seek the death penalty.
Lindsey tells Inside Edition she thinks the death penalty is justice.
“At the end of the day they made a choice. You know, to go to the sheriff’s station, to pull that trigger,” Lindsey says.
Clinkunbroomer was a fourth-generation deputy.
As for the day he proposed, “they're amazing and precious memories that i will hold on forever but he's not here with me and we can't make more memories,” Lindsey says.
