Maurice Clemmons is dead, no longer a threat to officers or the community at large. A single officer found him in Seattle and after a brief confrontation, ended up shooting Clemmons. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of those killed. Lakewood Officer Tina Griswold was killed that morning; her sister is a civilian that works for the City, a wonderful lady that most of us know and see regularly. Though I don't know her family well, many of our officers do, and this makes the killings ever more personal.
Several people have expressed to me their shock that this could have occurred, that this killer was free roaming the streets. Unfortunately, men and women like him are often free in our community. We officers interact with people like him on a regular basis; that is a danger that we all accept. Our criminal justice system is very broken, and times like this can be a depressing reminder of the dangers we face, yet every once of us will return to work day after day in our efforts to remove these criminals from the streets, again and again. My thanks to all of the people that have approached me this week around the community while I was working, to express their condolences for the fallen officers and their gratitude for my fellow officers and I. It means a lot to each of us, even if it is coming after a disaster such as this.
I worked the evening following these shootings and I had the privilege of being interviewed by KHQ News to share my reaction to this tragedy. This entire news clip is excellent, but KHQ reporter Katelynn Bolduc's interview with me runs from 5:25 - 8:08. (Clip Here; Follow the link, select the middle tab under the viewer "KHQ Newscasts", and look for the local news 11 at 11 on 11/29/2009 clip)
Officer Tina Griswold (husband, two children)
Officer Greg Richards (wife, three children)
Sergeant Mark Renninger (wife, three children)
Officer Ronald Owen (wife, one child)
I realized this evening that Caleb is 11 months old today! Wow, the time has flown by! I just a few weeks we'll be celebrating his 1 year birthday!! I can hardly believe it! In the last month, he walks more and crawls less. This little boy toddles all over our house! Ben loves it when Caleb walks all around trying to find him! He also gives hi-fives! He started blowing kisses the other day at lunch, but it takes a lot of encouragement to get him to do it! He also "talks" a lot, mimicking pretty much all of what we say! He'll say "cookie", "all done", "doggie" and other words, but they're certainly not very clear! These are just some pictures I snapped before he went off to bed!
A Few Fun Facts:
Here is the 5 colors of yarn I've started with. My Granny Squares are 5 rounds, with a pattern of 2-1-2, as in 2 round of a color, 1 round of the next color and 2 rounds of another color. The plan is that then the whole blanket will be lined with a row of white and purple..we'll see how it turns out! Here are the 17 squares that I've made so far..not bad. I'm really enjoying it. I can make a square in about 40 minutes, so it's a very doable project! The other fun thing is that my friend Jessie has taken up this project with me and she is making her own afghan!
.jpg)
Here is what followed just a few weeks later! Our little boys had finally arrived! (I couldn't resist newborn pictures!)
Posts
All Comments
