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A heroic California police officer was struck and killed as she rushed to help the victims of a fatal highway crash late Monday night.
La Mesa Police Officer Lauren Craven came upon the deadly rollover crash on Interstate-8 northeast of San Diego just before 10:30 p.m., officials said.
The 25-year-old on-duty cop was traveling back from the San Diego Central Jail when she discovered the multi-car crash in the middle of the busy highway, five miles west of La Mesa.
She reported the incident over the radio before stepping out and walking towards a car that had flipped over.
Craven was struck by another car, which triggered a chain reaction, smashing into the vehicles involved in the initial crash.
The driver of the car that flipped over in the first crash was identified as 19-year-old De’Veonte Morris, NBC7 San Diego reported.
The other victims in the crashes were transported to local hospitals.
The cause of the initial crash is being investigated by the California Highway Patrol.
The young police officer, who had celebrated her birthday on Oct. 7, was remembered for her final act of compassion.
“Officer Craven’s actions in her final moments exemplified her unwavering dedication to service and the safety of others—a reflection of how she lived every day,” the La Mesa Police Department wrote on Facebook. “Officer Craven was known for her tenacity, courage, and compassion—qualities that inspired her peers and strengthened her community.”
Craven was inspired to go into law enforcement after she was “traumatically assaulted in college” and a detective offered her compassion, her father, David Craven, told ABC10 San Diego.
“Lauren thought so much of the difference between those two that she said right then and there, I want to dedicate my life to being that good cop for anybody who needs me,” the grieving father said.
“I thought, damn, you just turned your biggest fear into a source of motivation. Nothing’s gonna stop you, and it didn’t,” he added.
Craven joined the Las Mesa Police Department in February 2024 after going through the police academy twice to achieve her goal of becoming an officer.
“It has always been my passion to serve others and there has never been a doubt in my mind being a law enforcement officer is what I was meant to do,” Craven wrote during the hiring process with the LMPD.
“That’s who Lauren was and that’s how she served and how she will be remembered,” La Mesa Chief of Police Ray Sweeney said at a news conference Tuesday.
Craven last spoke to her family in Oregon as she drove to work the night she died.
“It’s gonna be hard for a long time, but I’m doing this conversation with you because I want people to know what was in Lauren’s heart and the compassion that she showed everybody she came in contact with,” David Craven said.
The grieving father recalled the moment two Bend, Oregon, police officers knocked on his door in the middle of the night to break the news of his daughter’s death.
“They said, can we come inside? And I said, is this about my daughter Lauren? He said, yeah. I said, is she dead? They said, unfortunately, yes. So where do you go from there?” David Craven asked.
The elder Craven, who called his daughter his best friend, has mixed emotions on the police tests she took.
“Had she failed that test? I’d still have her,” he said. “But she would not have achieved her dream. A lot of people never get to a place where they’re loving what they’re doing and doing what they seem to be born to do. She did.”
English (US)