DALLAS — The flags flew at half mast in front of Dallas police headquarters Monday afternoon. Inside, a son spoke about his father, who was killed in a motorcycle crash Friday while escorting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s motorcade.

"He'd always tell us, before he even joined the motorcycle force, that maybe one day he would get shot, or something would happen to him, but we would stay strong as a family," 22-year-old Victor Lozada Jr. said of his namesake.

The younger Lozada spoke at a news conference, flanked by his mother, Theresa Lozada, and three younger siblings.

"My father hated funerals," Lozada said. "One thing that he always told me when we went to funerals was that if you were going to cry, cry tears of joy — celebrate his life."

WFAA-TV

Stephanie Lozada comforts her mother, Theresa.

The son, who studies classical singing at the University of North Texas, stood in a dark suit before more than a dozen television cameras, speaking with the poise of a performer. His sister Stephanie, 16, kept her arm tight around their mother, who alternately appeared to stifle tears and smile at her son’s remembrances.

Lozada said he was in class when he was first told something had happened to his father.

"I knew in my heart he was dead, and nobody told me that," he said. "What I realized that I'd miss the most was his hug and his smile and his laugh."