On a curvy stretch of road near Wheaton High School, nothing but a few shattered tree branches mark the scene where Fourth District Officer Hector Ayala's life came to an end early Sunday morning.

Ayala, a seven-year-veteran with Montgomery County Police, died shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday after his cruiser slammed into a tree near the intersection of Randolph and Denley roads in Wheaton. He had been responding to a fellow officer's call for back up to control a large fight that police said started outside of a nearby bar and restaurant.

He was 31.

Gov. Martin O'Malley ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff this week as the greater police community mourned a colleague whose life they say revolved around helping others.

"He gave his life to this job," said fellow Fourth District Officer Phil Meyer, who worked the midnight shift with Ayala.

When Ayala, a native Spanish speaker with Puerto Rican heritage, wasn't connecting with the predominantly Latino community in Wheaton, he was at home building toy cars with his 14-month-old son and providing for his pregnant wife.

Ayala died a little more than two months before his wife was expected to give birth to triplets, a monumental turn in Ayala's life that colleagues say the young father was excited about.

"He would have been a great dad," said Lt. Jacques Croom, who was mowing the lawn outside the Fourth District station Monday afternoon to ready the landscape for a police cruiser shrouded in black to honor Ayala.

With Ayala's death, the 16th on-duty death in the department's history, the Fourth District experienced yet another heartbreak.

Ayala's own comrade, Officer Luke T. Hoffman, died in April 2007 while working the midnight shift. A police cruiser struck and killed the 24-year-old officer as he was chasing a suspect on foot.

"It's a lot for us," said Fourth District Cmdr. Nancy Demme in a press conference at the station Monday afternoon. "To have a shift go through this; it's hard, but it's really hard to do it twice. Anymore would have been devastating."

Several officers responding to the same call as Ayala stopped their chase to tend to Ayala's crash. They were the first on the scene and immediately started CPR and first aid to keep the officer alive.

But "the car was decimated," said Cpl. Dan Friz, a spokesman for county police who was on the scene Sunday morning. County fire and rescue crews had to use the jaws of life to extricate Ayala, who was trapped, out of the rear passenger side.

"It was a horrific crash," Friz said.

Ayala died a short time later at Holy Cross Hospital.

His Fourth District colleagues say they'll never be the same after their friend's death.

Officer Douglas Barros said Monday afternoon that he could count on his friend and mentor for support and life lessons. On Friday night, Barros said he stayed an hour after his shift to ride around with Ayala and talk cars and boxing.

Ayala loved to rebuild beat-up cars, a passion Barros shared. Ayala had just purchased an old Mustang, and Barros had plans to purchase his own so the two could work on the cars together, Barros said, his voice cracking.

Barros said he wants a career that mirrors Ayala's, who spent time training officers just out of rookie school.

"On every call, there was something new I had to learn, and I learned it from him," Barros said before bursting into tears.

Ayala was known in Wheaton's Latino community for standing up for the community's rights, said Frank Molina, the manager of La Frontera restaurant.

His compassion will be tough to replace, Molina said.

"When we lost an appreciative member of that community, we lost a lot," he said Monday afternoon.

La Frontera was the restaurant Ayala was driving to the night of his death. Molina, who was working the bar at the time, said he didn't know what happened other than that a crowd of people were confronting police outside the El Salvadoran and Mexican restaurant.

Police said they have no details on why Ayala crashed, including whether he was wearing a seat belt or how fast he was going. They also have not released where Ayala lived with his family, but a police source who asked not to be named said he lived outside Montgomery County.

An internal investigation is under way.

Demme said all officers are trained from day one to get to a scene as quickly and safely as possible.

But despite what happened Sunday morning, life must go on, and police still have a job to do, Croom said.

To get through times like these, Croom said every officer compartmentalizes a fellow officer's death to try to make sense of it later.

"It's tough to overcome," Croom said. "I guarantee you every officer leaving for work tonight is going to take that extra second, kiss their family goodbye ... and say, ‘It'll be OK, I'll be home tomorrow.'

"We all sit there and say, ‘That could have been me,' " he said.

Croom added he hopes all the people who knew Ayala write letters to his widow so her children can have some idea of who their father was.

Police said funeral plans are being finalized for Friday. In the meantime, Meyer said he and his midnight-shift colleagues are spending much of this week with Ayala's widow to help comfort her. He said she seems to be spending much of her energy on letting her late husband's friends and family know about the crash.

Meyer and 14 other officers will be placed on administrative leave this week, with park and state police picking up the slack, to recover as well.

It's going to take some time, Meyer said.

"This department lost one hell of an officer, and I lost one hell of a friend," he said.

Staff Writers Jeanette Der Bedrosian, C. Benjamin Ford and Mimi Liu contributed to this report.

The late Fourth District police officer Hector Ayala was the only income provider for his wife, who is pregnant with triplets, and his 14-month-old son. Police have set up a memorial fund to help support his family. To donate, visit http://www.foplodge35.com/

AyalaFamilyDonation.htm or send a check to: Montgomery County Law Enforcement Officers Relief Fund, 18512 Office Park Drive, Montgomery Village, MD 20866. Checks can be made out to MCLEORF; please write "Ayala Family" in the memo area. All donations to the Montgomery County Lawn Enforcement Relief Fund, a nonprofit, are tax deductible. All "Ayala Family" donations will go straight to his surviving family.

Sixteen Montgomery County police officers have died on the job since the department's inception, according to the Montgomery County Police Department.

Hector Ayala's name is at the bottom of the third column. It reads "Hector Ismael Ayala, 2010; Montgomery County Police Department"