A candlelight vigil and a memorial service to honor the life and service of fallen La Mesa police Officer Lauren Craven, who was struck and killed this week by a suspected DUI driver, have been set for early next week.
The community vigil is planned for 6:30 p.m. Monday at the La Mesa Police Department. The program will include brief remarks, a moment of silence and a closing. Candles will be provided.
La Mesa police Officer Lauren Craven. (La Mesa Police Department)
“We will gather to remember Lauren’s light, courage, compassion, and steadfast commitment to helping others,” the police department said in its announcement.
A memorial service, which will be live-streamed, is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday at Skyline Church in Rancho San Diego. An estimated 700 law enforcement and first responder vehicles are expected in a funeral procession from Snapdragon Stadium to the church.
Craven was killed Monday night on Interstate 8 near Waring Road. She had come upon a crash involving two vehicles and stopped to help when a Toyota Camry struck her, according to the California Highway Patrol. The alleged driver of the Toyota was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Another motorist, De’Veonte Morris, 19, was also killed in the initial wreck.
The suspect, Antonio Alcantar, 38, was booked into jail on two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and three counts related to DUI, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Alcantar posted $110,000 bail and was released on Thursday. He is due in court Oct. 30, and could be arraigned if prosecutors opt to file charges at that time.
Craven, 25, had been with La Mesa police since February 2024.
On Friday night, about 20 people, including Police Chief Ray Sweeney and other officers, gathered for a candlelight vigil at the Pink Rose Cafe in downtown La Mesa to honor the officer.
“This is La Mesa. This is what La Mesa is all about,” Sweeney said of the outpouring of community support. “It means the world to know that they have our back.”
Her father, David Craven, who spoke by phone from his home in Oregon, said that she had decided to make the turn toward a career in law enforcement while she was still in college at Loyola Marymount, after an incident brought her into contact with police detectives. Some of those interactions with law enforcement were good, others not so. Lauren Craven wanted better experiences for others.
He said she considered a variety of different law enforcement opportunities, including pursuing a career with the FBI or CIA, “but what she really wanted to do was serve a community, and that narrowed it down, more focused it to police work.”
Then she saw the physical requirements. She spent the 18 months she had left in college training herself to qualify.
Nadia Zamora, owner of Pink Rose cafe, hugs La Mesa police Chief Ray Sweeney during a community candlelight vigil and fundraiser Friday in honor of La Mesa police Officer Lauren Craven, who was killed earlier this week. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Once in the academy, she was doing great. He said she shot “lights out” with a handgun, but a nighttime shotgun shooting test tripped her up. Her father said he woke up to a text: “I failed. I’m out. I’m sorry.”
Thing is, she didn’t let it defeat her. Craven got a second shot at the academy, and this time she succeeded. Her parents were there when she was sworn in as a La Mesa police officer. And later, after months of on-the-job training, she was on her own in a police vehicle.
He will miss the hugs, the visits, the trips they took. He will miss those calls at 5:30 p.m. as she headed to work these last few months, and those calls after 6 a.m. on her way home. But more than that, he knows that she knew what she had accomplished, what she had overcome, and that she took a path that “became its own reward.”
“She became a newly minted La Mesa police officer with all the opportunities to serve that come with it,” he said. “Nothing else would have made her that happy.”
Staff photojournalist Meg McLaughlin contributed to this report.
Originally Published: October 24, 2025 at 5:48 PM PDT