With hugs, tears and broken hearts, officers from the La Mesa Police Department gathered outside the Pink Rose Caf\u00e9 on La Mesa Boulevard to honor the memory of fallen officer Lauren Craven.<\/p>\n
\u201cLauren is light \u2026 she shined bright in our department,\u201d La Mesa police chief Ray Sweeney said.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old officer was killed when the driver of a Toyota Camry suspected of being under the influence crashed into her while she was rendering aid after a crash on Interstate 8 near Fairmont Avenue late Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust from the day I pinned the badge on her, the smile that was on her face even in the interviews,” Sweeney said. “She\u2019s an amazing person. She\u2019s an amazing police officer, so dedicated and loving to this community. The compassion and the empathy that she had that she had is what we\u2019re all about.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
On Friday, the owner of Pink Rose Caf\u00e9 held a vigil and fundraiser in her honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like the police department supports us, we want them to know that we support them, and 100 % of the proceeds today will be donated to the family,\u201d said cafe owner Nadia Zamora.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we really come together when times are tough, and this is just another example of that,\u201d Bonnie Hayman said.<\/p>\n
Sweeney said the community\u2019s support has been overwhelming.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the world, because we\u2019re hurting, and our community is here, and when our community is hurting, we\u2019re there,\u201d Sweeney said.<\/p>\n
Craven is the first officer the La Mesa Police Department has lost in the line of duty.<\/p>\n
Sweeney said her legacy has marked their hearts forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cLauren will never be forgotten, ever,” Sweeney said. “We look forward to memorializing her all the time to keep her memory alive.”.<\/p>\n
Funeral services for Craven will be held on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With hugs, tears and broken hearts, officers from the La Mesa Police Department gathered outside the Pink Rose…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":330877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,10506,224,5337,3549],"class_list":{"0":"post-330876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-mesa","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-san-diego"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115433228419853167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}