Lakewood Marks 8th Anniversary Of Police Killings With Food Drive

LAKEWOOD, WA - Lakewood police will mark the 8th anniversary of the 2009 massacre of four officers on Wednesday with its annual food drive. The department will also remember two Lakewood officers who died in 2017, including the one who founded the annual Fallen Officers Food Drive, and two other Pierce County officers who died this year.

Donations will be accepted Wednesday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Lakewood police station at 9401 Lakewood Drive Southwest. There will also be a blood drive at the station beginning at 11:30 a.m. If you can't make it Wednesday, food donations can be made at drop boxes at City Hall and the police station.

The food drive was founded in 2010 by former chief Bret Farrar. He died on Sept. 12 at his home in Arizona after battling cancer. Farrar was chief in 2009 when officers Mark Renninger, Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold, and Greg Richards were shot and killed in a Parkland coffee shop by Maurice Clemmons. After a two-day manhunt, Clemmons was shot and killed by a Seattle police officer.

The department will also remember three other officers who died this year: Lakewood officer Arron Grant who took his own life in April at age 40; Tacoma officer Jake Gutierrez who was killed on Nov. 30, 2016, at the scene of a domestic violence incident; and Pierce County Sheriff's deputy Kory Schaffer, who took his own life in a Yakima hotel room in May.

Since its founding, the Lakewood food drive has raised a cumulative $155,000 in cash and 143,000 pounds of food to the Emergency Food Network. This year, police hope to increase those figures to $175,000 and 150,000 pounds.

Photo: On Dec. 8, 2009, police officers approach the caskets of four slain Lakewood police officers as they prepare to fold the flags draped on them during a memorial service at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash.

Photo by Elaine Thompson/Associated Press