Friends remember, praise slain Long Beach fire captain

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- Long Beach fire Capt. David Rosa is being remembered by some of those who knew him best.

Rosa was shot and killed as he was searching for people involved in a fire in Long Beach.

A resident of a senior housing complex is accused of triggering an explosion designed to kill his upstairs neighbor and then shooting firefighters who responded to the blaze.

Rosa will be memorialized in a larger, public ceremony on Tuesday. But a few of his friends and family met for a smaller gathering Monday to explain just what a good firefighter, and good man, he was.

"Still waters run deep," said family friend Jonathan Wood. "Dave was very jovial and on the outside he could really carry the room but you knew down deep, you could tell there was a very gentle man inside there."

Cori Armstrong knew him as a passionate father who loved baseball, especially Little League baseball for his children and for other children.

"He led by example and he was selfless about it," she said. "He put everybody else first."

The memorial service for Rosa will be held Tuesday at the Long Beach convention center.