San Jose resident honors late cousin by donating AED to Santa Cruz Police Department
Deputy Sergio Lopez, a field training officer with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, holds an AED donated by Jean-Christophe Deprez.
San Jose resident Jean-Christophe “JC” Deprez donated an AED to the Santa Cruz Police Department in honor of his police officer cousin, Jerome Deprez.
Jerome Deprez experienced sudden cardiac arrest in October of 2025. While he received CPR, an AED was not used on him.
JC Deprez said Jerome Deprez was “always with a smile.” A father of two children, aged 15 and 18, Jerome Deprez worked as a police officer in Geneva, Switzerland. According to JC Deprez, his cousin didn’t count his hours during weekends or nights toward his pay.
Jerome Deprez died on Oct. 14, 2025.
“Jerome was only 48,” JC Deprez said. “I [turned] 46 this year, so we were from the same generation. I lost a very important person to me.”
When JC Deprez heard the news, he said he immediately bought airplane tickets to attend his cousin’s funeral in France.
“Being in a small village, the church was overflowing,” JC Deprez said. “My cousin was a soccer coach for kids in middle and high school. About 100 kids were present in the church with tears.”
After the funeral, JC Deprez returned to California. There, he read an article on the DP Foundation’s collaboration with Six Minutes to Live and the city of Santa Cruz to donate 10 AEDs to Santa Cruz law enforcement.
Motivated to turn his cousin’s loss “into something positive,” he purchased an AED and donated it to the Santa Cruz sheriff.
“[AEDs] are important to save people efficiently,” JC Deprez said. “The tool, and someone knowing how to use it, go hand-in-hand.”
Six Minutes to Live established its first chapter in Santa Cruz on Jan. 30, partnering with the Santa Cruz Fire Department and Police Department to increase local survival rates. Through training the community on the steps to hands-only CPR and the use of AEDs, the 6M2L:SCZ initiative is uniting forces to strengthen the chain of survival.
With JC Deprez’s donation, the Santa Cruz Police Department is one step closer to reaching its goal of equipping 95 police cars with AEDs.
“I will miss him as a person,” JC Deprez said. “Each time I think about it, I have a hard time realizing it, and I'm afraid it will be the same feeling throughout my life. On the happy side, I think [Jerome] would be glad that this donation is going to a police department.”
By Rhea Sinha
