‘Beautiful soul.’ Fresno correctional officer Malama Scanlan remembered as a ‘gentle giant’
Toamalama Scanlan was a caring man, even with inmates at the Fresno County Jail, where he worked as a correctional officer.
In one instance, while dealing with an angry gang member, Scanlan, smiling, started to sing to him in Samoan. The inmate, confused, quieted down, recalled Eulalio Gomez, a former colleague with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.
“And he did that numerous times. ... He connected with everybody,” Gomez said. “He connected with somebody that was angry, he connected with someone that was hostile, but he was able to calm him down in his own way. A very remarkable person.”
Scanlan’s remarkable life was remembered Monday during a memorial service at the Save Mart Center in Fresno. The 46-year-old died Oct. 12 of injuries he sustained in September 2016, when a man high on methamphetamine shot him and correctional officer Juanita Davila in the lobby of the jail where they worked.
Davila recovered from that shooting, but Scanlan remained seriously injured.
“He lived with a gunshot wound in the head for five more years. That’s the miracle,” the Rev. Tala Fa’aleava said.
Scanlan, known by many as Malama, died at a long-term care hospital in Southern California.
The former Fresno State football player became a probation officer with the sheriff’s office in 1998, and then a corrections officer at the jail in 2006. Scanlan hoped to become a sheriff’s deputy one day, said his eldest son, Robert Scanlan. He also coached sports for his six children and helped with their church youth group.
Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said Scanlan touched the lives of all he knew in significant ways, including the inmates he was tasked to provide security for.
“He had this ability to let you know that you mattered,” Mims said. “He had the ability to let you know that there was opportunity ahead in your life, and he had the ability to encourage people and help them see their value.”
Colleagues and friends called him a gentle giant, big teddy bear who cheerfully rode a longboard to work, and a “mountain of a man.” His towering presence was noticed when he walked into any room, but it was his warm personality that drew people to him, his loved ones recalled.
Scanlan was born in the Bay Area, but grew up in American Samoa, Pacific islands near Fiji, east of Australia. His memorial service included Samoan songs, along with a Polynesian prayer hula dance and drumming.
Scanlan was buried after the service at Redbank Cemetery in Clovis. Fresno County Jail’s Security Emergency Response and Tactics team, which he was a member, carried his American flag-draped casket while wearing leis of flowers around their necks in his honor.
Scanlan was described as “a man of faith, a man of family, and a man of duty” by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Bishop Cory Belliston of the Orchard View Ward. Ryan McNeil, state president of the church’s Fresno North Stake, recalled his goodness, gentleness and kind nature.
His generosity included hosting large Samoan feasts, where family and friends always left his home with extra plates of his famous barbecue chicken and potato salad.
Robert Scanlan said his father truly loved to serve others, and also described him as humble, hardworking, quick to forgive, respectful, and a “peace maker.”
“What he didn’t know was that my biggest fear was losing him,” his eldest son said.
Gomez recalled his friend and colleague as a giving person who was always protecting people.
“When your heart was hurting, he was there,” Gomez said. “Such a beautiful person, beautiful soul.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2021 at 2:41 PM.
