Workers install a sign memorializing Capt. David Rosa on the 5 Freeway in San Juan Capistrano on April 7, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Long Beach Firefighters Association.

Two signs were installed today signifying that a stretch of the 5 Freeway in San Juan Capistrano was renamed in honor of fallen Long Beach fire captain David Rosa.

Rosa, 45, was gunned down June 25, 2018, when he responded to a report of an explosion and fire at the Covenant Manor senior housing complex in the 600 block of East Fourth Street in Long Beach. He died at a hospital.

About a one-mile stretch of the 5 Freeway in Rosa’s hometown of San Juan Capistrano, between Ortega Highway and the Camino Capistrano off-ramp, was renamed “Long Beach Fire Captain David Rosa Memorial Highway.”

The Long Beach Fire Department sold T-shirts to raise money for signs that were installed on the southbound 5 at Ortega Highway and on the northbound 5 at the Camino Capistrano off-ramp.

“The sign will further immortalize Dave and his sacrifice he made serving the citizens of Long Beach along with the impact he had on so many lives in his neighborhood of San Juan Capistrano,” an LBFD union Twitter post reads.

Rosa was a 17-year veteran of the department. His last assignment was at Fire Station 10 in central Long Beach. Before that, he served as a training captain.

The gunman, a 77-year-old resident of Covenant Manor, died in August 2018 from a pre-existing medical condition while housed in the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center.