An achingly cold sunny afternoon Tuesday was the stage for an emotional tribute to four slain police officers.
Attended by nearly 20,000 – most of them law officers from across the country and Canada – the memorial service took place at the Tacoma Dome, which was filled nearly to capacity.
They came to honor four of their own: Lakewood officers Greg Richards, Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Sgt. Mark Renninger; who died Nov. 29 after a lone gunman came into the Parkland coffee shop where they were working, and opened fire on them. The gunman, Maurice Clemmons, 37, was shot and killed Dec. 1 following a massive manhunt through the Puget Sound region that ended in a confrontation during a traffic stop in Seattle with police.
On Tuesday, none of that mayhem was even hinted at, given the somber decorum of polished badges, immaculate dress uniforms and gloves raised with a snap of precision, in a lingering, heartfelt salute.
As befitted their status, the four slain officers were given a tribute with all the emotional moxie that the nation’s law-enforcement community could muster.
A Highlanders pipe band, composed of officers from multiple departments, skirled under an enormous waving Old Glory in the winter sunlight, leading a procession of patrol cars that bore the officers’ names, followed by the hearses that bore their flag-covered caskets. Helicopters droned overhead, and snipers watched the massive crowds from key locations at the dome.
Accompanied by an honor guard of the Washington State Patrol, the four caskets were escorted with dignity into the Tacoma Dome, where they placed at the front of the facility, surrounded by wreaths of flowers and watched by officers immaculate in honor-guard dress.
The moment wasn’t lost upon members of the Kent Police Department, who lost a colleague and friend in Richards. More than 160 Kent officers and their families attended the event, maxxing out the seating area on the Tacoma Dome floor that had been sectioned off for them.
Richards, a husband and father of three, had started his law-enforcement career in Kent, winning a cadre of good friends, who stayed linked to him after he moved on to become one of the original founding members of the new Lakewood Police Department.
“It’s a little closure – it feels better now,” said officer Matt Lorette, gazing out at the thousands of officers milling about before the start of the service. Lorette, who’d known Richards while on the force, described him as “always smiling.”
When asked if there was something he wanted the public to understand about law officers, especially at times like these when they lose a colleague in the line of duty, Lorette said he wanted the public to realize they are people also, with feelings and emotions.
“We’re just like anybody else – we’re human,” he said.
Tzeitel, Lorette’s wife, was at her husband’s side during the service.
“It’s been a very emotional, up and down week,” she said, noting Kent has a good support network of spouses, which has helped.
When asked how she’s been affected by the shootings and the reality of the danger in police work, Tzeitel noted, “That sense of security is gone. It has to rebuild.”
“She hugs me a lot longer now,” Lorette noted with a smile, about what he gets when he leaves for work.
But the couple wasn’t wavering in Lorette’s desire to continue being a police officer.
“He loves his job and he loves the people,” Tzeitel said firmly.
Kent officer Autumn Majack, who has been with the department 11 years, watched as the stadium filled with officers.
“It’s very overwhelming,” she said, of what she has been going through.
“We all knew Greg. It stings. It hurts.”
Asked how staff is handling their daily work, in the shadow of what’s happened, Majack kept her answer to the point, noting officers are “hypervigilant,” but there is work to be done.
“You still carry a badge,” she said.
But Majack noted the outpouring of good will from the public has been “immense.”
“I have people stopping me on the road,” she said.
The ceremony got under way with honor-guard processionals, bagpiping, and tributes to each of the officers by their friends, colleagues and families. Also speaking as guest of honor was Gov. Christine Gregoire.
“We owe the children of these officers – all nine of them – a present and a future that is safe and secure. Building that work takes the spirit we see here today,” Gregoire said. “It takes the commitment of citizens young and old, in every city in every neighborhood to ensure a community of justice.”
Following Tuesday’s ceremony, Pat Ellis, chaplain for the Kent Police Department, said the memorial was a critical part of the grieving process for the law-enforcement community.
“It gives the law-enforcement community a chance to come together and honor our fallen brothers and sisters and a chance to grieve together,” he said.
Kent Police Lt. Lisa Price, who oversees peer-support services for her department, said the officers as well civilian members of the department are working together to heal.
“There are such a variety of actions, because of the variety of emotions,” Price said, of the ways in which department members are processing the deaths, and how peer-support team members are responding. “Everyone seeks out, for the most part, what they need, at the level of what they need.”
And as to the public outpouring of support for local officers, Price added, “I think every officer around here has gained about 5 pounds (with baked items and other treats coming from the public.)
“It has just been overwhelming.”
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