Slain Lakewood officers honored in Yakima

YAKIMA, Wash. — Surrounded by Yakima police officers, Mary Lorton stood to remember her niece, one of the four Lakewood, Wash. police officers slain by a gunman intent on attacking those who wear the badge.

“It’s difficult, but we’re coming together and that’s what we need to do,” the Wapato woman said at a Yakima memorial for Officer Tina Griswold and her three fellow officers.

In Tacoma, officers from Cle Elum to Goldendale joined almost 20,000 of their colleagues from across the United States and Canada for a memorial service at the Tacoma Dome.

Almost every agency in Central Washington sent representatives to the service, described as the largest such memorial ever held for the deadliest single attack on the state’s police officers.

The largest local contingent came from the Yakima Police Department, represented by 30 officers.

Ellensburg sent 17, most of them on their own time.

About 100 officers, firefighters, city staff and residents gathered at the Yakima Police Department Training Facility, across the street from the police station on South Third Street to recognize the Lakewood officers. Besides Griswold, 40, the slain officers were Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and officers Ronald Owens, 37, and Greg Richards, 42.

Lorton and her sister, Carol Raymond of Yakima, said the family has several other relatives in the Yakima Valley.

In an interview with the Herald-Republic, they said they appreciated Yakima police holding the local service for themselves and others who couldn’t make the trip to Tacoma.

“It helps us put our hearts at peace,” Raymond said.

Lorton recalled Griswold as a go-getter who decided to follow her father into police work. She fully dedicated herself to whatever she decided to do, including becoming an officer.

The mother of two, Griswold had worked as a 911 dispatcher in Shelton and as a police officer in Lacey before she joined the Lakewood Police Department in 2004. There, she worked at Mann Middle School as a school resource officer for four years and participated in a federal anti-gang program that helps students develop positive relationships and stay out of trouble.

“She paid the ultimate price, and she left behind a better place for all of us,” Lorton said.

Michael Bailey, the Yakima Police chaplain and a former King County sheriff’s deputy, led the service. He said the Lakewood officers did not die in vain.

They were “warriors protecting us, and they gave their lives in service to those ideals,” Bailey said.

Law enforcement still matters and communities still depend on officers for help and protection, Bailey said. Current officers continue their chosen duty as they deal with the grief generated by the deaths.

“You have to go on, for the sake of good and God,” he said.

After Bailey’s remarks, former Yakama Nation police chief Davis Washines spoke and sang a native song that would have been performed when tribal members returned with the riderless horses of lost warriors.

Capt. Dan Hansberry of the Ellensburg Police Department knows the grief that comes with losing an officer.

In 2008, Ellensburg Sgt. Nelson Ng died from an illness contracted on the job.

Hansberry said he couldn’t begin to get a handle on the emotions — multiplied times four — that the Lakewood agency must be struggling with now.

“I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like, how it’s going to feel,” he said about attending the Tacoma service.

Klickitat County Undersheriff Erik Anderson echoed that sentiment.

In 2007, Sgt. Peter Garland of Goldendale was killed when his personal vehicle was struck by an intoxicated driver while Garland was the on-call supervisor for the sheriff’s office.

“When we lost one officer, that alone was devastating,” Anderson said. “I really can’t fathom what four officers murdered like that would be doing to their agency and their community. It’s exponentially more devastating to Lakewood, I would say.”

The four slain officers leave behind a total of nine children, as well as numerous relatives all over the country.

Donations for the slain officers’ families are being accepted by the Lakewood Police Independent Guild Fund, P.O. Box 99579, Lakewood, WA 98499.

• Information from The Seattle Times was used in this report.
• Mark Morey can be reached at 509-577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.