OCEANSIDE, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) -- The murderer of an Oceanside police officer is going to be resentenced after a new law went into effect giving minors convicted as adults another possible chance to eventually get parole. “Even though it’s been 18 years, we can remember it like it was yesterday,” said Assistant Police Chief John McKean, while referring to fallen officer Dan Bessant. On Dec. 20, 2006, Bessant, a young father in his mid-twenties, was standing behind his Oceanside police car watching his partner as she worked up a routine traffic stop. San Diego FBI’s ‘Most Wanted’ in 2025 “There were some gang members who were out there drinking, and several of them fired a round and hit Dan," explained McKean. "And pretty much killed him right on the spot.” The bullet hit Dan in the side, missing his bulletproof vest, and in an instant the officer's family’s lives were changed forever. The shooters were teenagers at the time; Meki Gaono was just four months shy of 18 years old. Prosecutors say he confessed to shooting Bessant and was charged as an adult, convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Now, laws have changed and are challenging the sentencings of minors. “I didn’t think we would be back here getting ready to go back on this case again,” McKean. The assistant police chief says losing Bessant, a hometown hero and Oceanside public servant, has been a generational and department-wide trauma. Now, they are going to, once again, make an impact statement at sentencing for Gaono on Jan. 6 at the downtown criminal courthouse. “We have deep feelings. This is something that is very personal to us. This is something that will affect the Oceanside Police Department for years to come," McKean continued. "It’s something that we won’t let be forgotten, but we are also talking about the positive stuff that Dan did as a cop when he was here." Gaono was originally convicted of murder in the first degree with special circumstances and was sentenced to  61 years, plus life without the possibility of parole.