4 Officers Murdered in Washington Coffeehouse
UPDATE: The names of the four officers who were gunned down are:
Sergeant Mark Renninger, 39. He had 13 years of law enforcement experience and leaves a wife and three children.
Officer Ronald Owens, 37. He had 12 years of law enforcement experience and leaves a former wife and a daughter.
Officer Tina Griswold, 40. She had 14 years of law enforcement experience. She leaves her husband and two children.
Officer Greg Richards, 42. He had eight years of law enforcement experience and leaves his wife and three children.
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UPDATE: One of the officers killed today was Officer Mark Renninger, a Lehigh Valley (PA) native.
In a statement issued Sunday, the family said:
Although we like to focus on the positive in law enforcement, we were saddened to learn of the four Lakewood police officers who were mercilessly gunned down today in Washington state.
Four officers–three males and one female–were doing paperwork at the start of their shift in a coffee shop near McChord Air Force Base when a gunman entered the establishment and shot them all. No one else in the business was injured or targeted.
We extend our sincerest condolences to the families of these brave officers. We will keep you and your loved one in our prayers.
Cops and Kids Motorcycle Run
Santa is cruising Panama City Beach on aH with his biker helpers not far behind today. The Panama City Beach Police Department held its 15th annual motorcycle run to benefit families in the Panama City Beach area this morning. The fundraiser is working again this year to provide Christmas to needy families.
Toys and bikers don’t usually go hand in hand, but they do during Christmas, and you see tough bikers carrying around fluffy toys on the day of the Panama City Beach Police Department’s Cops and Kids motorcycle run. Diana Woods says it’s a successful benefit: “We’ve done exceptionally well this year. This is one of our best years, probably because the weather this year has really helped us out. We don’t have any wind or any inclement weather so that’s been exceptionally well …lotta bikes. We probably have about 200 people here today.”
The bikers gather for the run, bringing toys and donations with them. After taking a run of the entire beach area, they return to help Santa load the police van with goodies for Panama City Beach children that, for a change, will wake up to a Christmas with toys and food.
Last year the project provided Christmas for over 300 families. This year they hope to surpass that number. Woods said that “ Last year was probably the largest year we’ve ever had and I think there were something like 300 families last year, which exceeded any other year so I’m not sure and we never really know until we start delivering.”
The bikers, and especially Santa, say they do it all to help children in the community during a special time of year.
If you’d like to donate, just take any unwrapped gift or donation to the Panama City Beach Police Department. The number is 233-5010 if you’d like to inquire about volunteering to wrap or distribute the gifts.
By Allyson Walker
K9: Four-legged officers helping keep region safe from crime
When a criminal suspect meets Officer Jeff Stork’s partner, they often surrender quickly and some can show a scar from a previous encounter when they didn’t.
Stork is a K9 officer and his partner is K9 Storm, 4-year-old Belgian Malinois. With a speed of 38 miles per hour and the ability to clear a football field in 6 seconds, Stormy — as Stork affectionately calls him — isn’t easily outrun.
Storm can be very lovable at times, evidenced by his friendly lean on your leg when he first meets a friend to his master, but when it’s time to work he gets serious about what Stork tells him to do.
It’s that way with all the K9 officers at Johnson City PD, the Jonesborough Public Safety Department and Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
In Rio’s two years with Jonesborough Public Safety, he’s found more than 20 pounds of marijuana, significant amounts of cocaine and thousands in drug money while on patrol.
All K9 Officer Scottie Greene had to do was get Rio, his 4-year-old Belgian Malinois patrol partner, in the right situation to smell out the drugs. He’s all business when Greene tells him to work.
But if Greene pulls out the ball Rio loves to chew, he’s ready to play. Actually, Greene said it’s all play to Rio. He works to get his reward — his ball to chew on. And when he alerts on the smell of drugs, he’s promptly rewarded.
Both department’s programs and the one at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office have been in place a number of years. Johnson City has four dogs and Jonesborough and Washington County each had two until last month.
One of Washington County’s dogs recently retired after being diagnosed with cancer.
But until she began having trouble with her leg, K9 Scout was instrumental in numerous drug arrests, according to Deputy Lee Cross, her handler.
When a deputy called for assistance on a traffic stop in October 2008, Cross and Scout responded. Scout alerted on the vehicle and officers found $20,000 inside and with other evidence were able to make an arrest.
That led to another location where officers found $100,000 and a kilo of cocaine — all because of Scout’s sensitive nose.
Cross and Scout worked together about two years, but her career went back several more years and she had two other handlers in the department.
Deputy Kurt Sells and K9 Udo is the other K9 team for Washington County.
Udo, 9-year-old German Shepherd, is Sells’ personal dog.
“I own this dog. I bought him when I worked at Jonesborough,” he said.
Sells wanted to work as a K9 officer and began training Udo and received approval when he worked for the Jonesborough department to work toward certification.
Johnson City Officer Jeff Jenkins said his partner, K9 Marko is “like a 70-pound lap dog for me,” but the dog doesn’t warm up to others so quickly.
At home, Marko keeps his distance from Jenkins’ wife and children — and other animals, including Tigger, Jenkins’ last K9 partner who’s now retired.
Jonesborough Officer Mike McPeak is the newest K9 officer in the area — he just received his certification a few weeks ago and paired up with K9 Gregor, a 19-month-old Dutch Shepherd with six months of patrol under his collar.
JPS Major Matt Rice said the K9 program in Jonesborough is very community oriented, and it shows in the type of dogs they have.
“We focus a lot more on community relations type projects. I’m not saying that Johnson City and Washington County don’t,” he said.
But it’s obvious when you meet Rio and Gregor, then encounter the Johnson City K9s that there is a significant difference in their personalities and how they interact with the public.
Rice said Rio has “done an outstanding job in drug searches and tracking.”
He said the dogs really support and help pay for the program. Funds that come back to the town from drug seizures goes back into the K9 program.
“This type of program is not cheap,” he said.
One malinois ready to start patrol work can cost $9,000 or more.
But when the cost of the dog and its training, and the potential loss if the dog is hurt or killed is compared to the potential loss of an officer, Johnson City Police Chief John Lowry said there is no comparison.
“Even though those dogs become their partner, they all understand that dog is a tool. We’ve had a dog shot. Heaven forbid we didn’t utilize that K9 and end up getting an officer shot,” Lowry said.
“I have a great respect for the program and a great respect for the officers,” Lowry said. “Because of a dog’s extraordinary sense of smell, they can search a building in a lot less time than it would take a group of officers to do … they’ve found a lot of narcotics over the years,” he said.
Johnson City’s K9 program took a turn in the last year or so and all four dogs are pretty young, said Sgt. Eric Dougherty, who supervises the team.
Dougherty’s own partner, K9 Rex, another Belgian Malinois, is 3 years old, and during their year together Rex has detected a kilo of cocaine.
“We’ve had two surrenders where the suspect gave up” before Dougherty had to give the command to bite, he said.
Officer Rob Edwards has the most seasoned partner with 5-year-old K9 Cliff, still relatively young for a police K9.
But the two have had their share of exciting calls.
“He’s found about eight people on tracks and he’s had about 10 surrenders before I had to send him in,” Edwards said.
On one track, Cliff found a burglary suspect after sniffing him out through 200 yards of creek — and then having to bite him to get him to surrender.
In his two years with Edwards, Cliff has also been responsible for the seizure of a total of around $180,000 in drug money, Edwards said.
“He’s done a pretty good job,” Edwards said.
He agreed with Lowry that the dogs are tools for the officers.
“They’re not pets. Because of their training, it’ll cause them to do things that pets don’t do,” he said.
At the same time, Cliff is good with children, but not overly friendly.
Undue circumstances pushed Cliff quickly to senior status at the department.
“We just had some retire due to age and because of an injury we had to retire (another) one,” Dougerty said. Tigger, Jenkins’ former partner, was shot while working last year, but recovered from that and went back to work.
But earlier this year, his stomach flipped — a deadly situation for a dog if not treated immediately. Jenkins recognized his partner was in trouble and got him to the emergency pet hospital in time.
“He’d had a long career and had been through a lot so we retired him,” Dougherty said.
Normally, dog replacement would be spaced out further, so there would always be seasoned dogs on the road, but with the retirements and injuries, “all of a sudden, within a two to three year period we had to replace them all,” he said.
But it’s worked out well. All four dogs are working and doing their jobs.
Dougherty said the department uses Belgian Malinois because they are more readily available and they’re a good breed for the job.
These eight officers consider themselves luckier than their coworkers because they go to work every day with their best friend, who adores them and does everything they say — a friend that would lay their life on the line for the officer, but only on the officer’s command.
For these officers, it can be a blessing and a burden.
By Becky Campbell
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Bronze policeman statue had a long trek before arriving at new home in Police Memorial Lobby
Zalcman for News Lt. Matthew Spano holds his son Matthew Jr. in front of the bronze policeman statue which was created in 1939 to honor NYPD officers killed in the line of duty.
Just inside the front entrance of NYPD headquarters in Manhattan stands a large bronze statue of a barrel-chested cop holding the hand of a young boy.
The uniformed cop stands ramrod-straight as the boy clings to his side, as if seeking comfort. The boy clutches the cop’s arm, seeming more vulnerable than scared.
In a moment of photographic symmetry, Lt. Matthew Spano, 33, held his 2-year-old son, Matthew Jr., in his arms as he posed for a picture in front of the Police Memorial Statue at a promotion ceremony last month.
“It represents what the Police Department does – we protect the innocent,” Lt. Spano, 33, now assigned to the Brooklyn court system, said of the statue’s significance.
The statue was created in 1939 by noted Italian sculptor Attilio Piccirilli after Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia advocated for a monument honoring NYPD officers killed in the line of duty.
Despite the statue’s Rockwell-esque appeal, it made a long and unheralded journey following its completion until finally arriving at Police Headquarters in 1983.
That journey should have included one more stop, said LaGuardia’s son, Eric, who was 9 years old when he served as Piccirilli’s model for the boy, who represents the child of a slain cop.
“It’s a fine piece of work and it needs to be properly displayed,” said Eric LaGuardia, who now lives in Seattle. “It needs a more monumental setting.”
Eric LaGuardia, who fondly recalls his trips to Piccirilli’s Bronx studio, said he visited Police Headquarters a few years ago after learning the statue had finally found a home.
The statue is the centerpiece of the Police Memorial Lobby, where the walls are covered by plaques bearing the names of police officers who have given their lives for the city.
Yet as Eric LaGuardia sees things, the statue’s importance requires that it be placed atop a pedestal and displayed in a city park, similar to the Firemen’s Monument on Riverside Drive in Manhattan.
“That’s up to the police,” LaGuardia added, sensitive to the chain of command.
Interestingly, the idea for the statue was born when LaGuardia’s famous father formed a committee “to erect a monument to the Police Department corresponding to the Firemen’s Memorial,” according to the New York City Police Museum.
But World War II broke out shortly thereafter, and Mayor LaGuardia’s plan was ignored and virtually forgotten.
The completed statue was stored for some 15 years in a garage at the NYPD’s 42nd Precinct stationhouse in the Bronx.
Then it was shipped to upstate New York where it was displayed at a camp for police officers and their families in the Catskill mountains. It was not moved to Police Headquarters until the camp was sold in 1983, according to the museum.
The NYPD says the statue is not going anywhere.
“There is no place more prominent or hallowed than the hall where those who have been killed in the line of duty are memorialized,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.
The current placement in the Police Memorial Lobby has made Piccirilli’s creation a popular photographic backdrop following promotion ceremonies.
Newly promoted officers, like Spano, stream past the statue as they exit headquarters, and many stop to pose for a quick picture arm-in-arm with family, just like in the statue.
“It looks perfect,” Dana Weber, 31, said as she reviewed a picture she had taken of her husband, Lt. Kurt Weber, 35, in front of the statue following his promotion last month.
The lieutenant’s proud mother, Barbara Weber, 68, said she cherishes a picture of him standing in front of the statue when he made sergeant in 2005.
“This is part of what the promotion is all about,” she said. “To have your picture taken in front of the bronze statue is almost as important as being up on the stage.
“This way, you are up close and personal.”
By J Lauinger
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