ATLANTA — Family and friends gathered Friday to honor a Georgia State trooper who was killed during a crash in the line of duty in January.
The service for Trooper Jimmy Cenescar was held at Mount Paran Church at 11 a.m. He will be buried at the Mount Harmony Memorial Gardens on Veterans Memorial Highway SE in Mableton.
The Georgia law enforcement community and loved ones have mourned Cenescar since the crash.
Governor Brian Kemp spoke at Cenescar’s funeral, saying the trooper’s death has hit everyone hard.
“We consider this a great loss for this entire state and we are grieving with you,” he said.
Kemp described him as a "young public safety officer" who had "years of experiences and opportunities that lay ahead and a career dedicated to protecting others." The governor also said that Cenescar leaves behind a loving family and a fiancée.
Others at Friday's service remembered him as a young man with a bright smile and a passion for public service and his community.
Cenescar knew he wanted to be in law enforcement from an early age, according to a Georgia Gwinnett College profile from 2022. He was born in Haiti, and his parents emigrated to the United States when he was 4 years old. He said that "hard work and the tenacity to never give up was instilled in me" by his family.
“Everything he said he was going to do, he did. Anything he said he was going to do, he always did. He followed through," said Cenescar's fiance, Natalie Kron.
The Department of Public Safety said that Cenescar had been with Georgia State Patrol since Jan. 2023 and was a graduate of the 114th Trooper School. In 2021, 11Alive and other news organizations reported when he helped save a man's life as an Atlanta Police Department officer.