"I guess like heartbreak, I just couldn't believe he was gone," said Sandra Trujillo, a long time friend of Angel Garcia's.

"It's hard to believe something like this is happening," said Yossif Alharbi, who used to serve Garcia regularly at IHOP.

Angel Garcia was just 27 years old. A former marine reservist and rookie on the El Paso police department, Garcia was hit and killed Sunday morning while trying to move a ladder from the I-10 near the hawkins exit.

"You know I got shocked that day I got a phonecall about 6:30 and they told me what happened. I could not believe it," said Saad Alharbi, a manager at the IHOP on George Dieter.

Alharbi said Angel Garcia was a regular.

"His personality. He's a really nice person -- to know, to be around, to talk to him," said Alharbi.

Alharbi's son Yossif said Garcia didn't feel like a customer anymore, he was more like a friend.

"I mean, we get attached to a lot of our usuals. I mean, we always see him in uniform and even when I see him outside of uniform I see him the same. I mean, his personality is always glowing," said Yossif Alharbi.

Robert Barcenas didn't know Garcia, but is close with his father. Barcenas says Angel was always a topic of conversation.

"His son used to enjoy driving his old Cadillac. Mike just got an old Cadillac he was looking forward to fixing it," said Barcenas.

A past time Angel and his father both shared.

"He loves to drive that car. So I guess he won't have a chance to do that. I don't know what he'll do with the car," said Barcenas.

Sandra Trujillo was a former coworker. They'd known each other nearly a decade.

"I wish I got to spend more time with him. I guess recently because I hadn't seen him in forever," said Trujillo.