AUSTIN, Texas — Flor Zarzoza-Almendarez and Harris County Deputy Darren Almendarez's love story started off with friendship and culminated in marriage.
"I think our upbringing and our childhoods, we found comfort in each other because our childhoods were rough," Flor Zarzoza-Almendarez said.
On March 31, 2022, the pair were grocery shopping in North Houston when Almendarez spotted three men attempting to steal a catalytic converter from his truck. When the off-duty deputy confronted them, he was shot.
"We hugged and we kissed each other. He told me he loved me, and that was his last words. There was nothing else," Flor Zarzoza-Almendarez said.
Darren Almendarez served as a protector in the community and to his family. His niece, Alice Almendarez, calls him "irreplaceable."
"The hero of the family. Like, the person we all looked up to. And superheroes don't die," Alice Almendarez said.
"It just hurt so bad that my heart is broken, in a million pieces that I don't even think – I know I will never be the same, ever," Flor Zarzoza-Almendarez said.
State Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston) is honoring the fallen deputy's life with Senate Bill 224, also called the "Deputy Darren Almendarez Act." The bill would make catalytic converter theft a felony and give prosecutors the flexibility to treat catalytic converter thefts as organized crime.
"We need to give law enforcement and prosecutors more tools, more flexibility to really, you know, have a strict punishment, a very forceful punishment that we hope will serve as a deterrent for crime," Alvarado said.
Flor Zarzoza-Almendarez is hoping the legislation shows the "ultimate sacrifice" that her husband made so that no other family has to go through what she did.
"It's my honor to do everything that I can for his life, his death doesn't go in vain," Flor Zarzoza-Almendarez said.
The Senate passed the bill on April 3.