‘A loving, loving dad’: West Palm Beach police officer killed in patrol car crash

West Palm Beach Police Officer Fernando DeSouza would listen for hours over video calls as his 8-year-old daughter Angela told him how she had dressed up her dolls and asked him to buy her things.

The veteran, who served in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, still called his daughter Gabriella “my baby,” even though she was 6 years old.

“Whatever they said, that’s what he did, and they were his world,” Linda Vidal, DeSouza’s ex-wife and the mother of his children, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Tuesday. “And the girls, they loved him so much. They were Daddy’s girls.”

DeSouza died in a patrol car crash in Boynton Beach early Friday morning, according to family members who identified him Tuesday.

Just after 2:30 a.m., Boynton Beach Police responded to the crash at the intersection of Hypoluxo Road and Lawrence Road, the police department said in a release on social media.

The West Palm Beach police car had collided with a concrete pole, said Holly Picciano, a spokesperson for Boynton Beach Police. Then it went up in flames.

Boynton Beach Police have not yet released the identity of the driver in the crash because the medical examiner has to make a positive identification. Mike Jachles, a spokesperson for the West Palm Beach Police Department, also said that he cannot confirm anything until the medical examiner makes a positive identification. DeSouza’s brother, Aldo, declined to speak Tuesday until the identification is made.

Vidal said her daughters know that their father isn’t coming back, but is up in the sky with God and reunited with his best friend who served with him in the army.

“We tell Gabby and Angela, whenever they see the brightest star outside, that’s Dad watching over them,” she said.

Other family members, friends and public figures took to social media to remember DeSouza.

“I love you brother of my soul,” DeSouza’s younger sister, Dami DeSouza Ferreira, wrote in Spanish on Facebook. “I was always proud of you, I always admired you, I love you with all my strength. You took with you a piece of me that nothing can ever replace.”

“West Palm Beach Police Department police officer Fernando DeSouza dedicated his life to keeping his country and community safe,” wrote Sen. Rick Scott. “Ann and I are heartbroken to hear of this loss and are keeping his family and fellow officers in our prayers.”

DeSouza served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan for seven years, and was in one of the first airborne troops sent from Italy to the military base in Iraq at the beginning of the war, Vidal said. She described him as “smart and hardworking.”

Afterwards, he decided to stay home so he could be closer to his family and not have to go to war again, joining the West Palm Beach Police department.

Though DeSouza and Vidal are no longer together, he would visit his children twice a week and spend hours on the phone with them, she said.

“He was just a loving, loving dad,” Vidal said. “Very loving, oh my God, I’ve never seen a love like that. Dios mío.”

In addition to his two daughters, DeSouza also had an 18-year-old son, Daniel, who declined to speak about his father Tuesday.

DeSouza also poked fun at all his kids, she added, calling Gabriella “gordita,” which means “chubby girl,” and Daniel “mico,” which means “monkey” in Spanish. But he never failed to spoil them — “in a good way.”

“I miss Daddy,” 6-year-old Gabriella said as Vidal held the phone out to her Tuesday afternoon.

“I loved him and I miss him,” said 8-year-old Angela. Then she added, “A lot.”