Redmond Police commander Shari Shovlin made a concerned phone call when she heard about four Lakewood Police officers being gunned down at a coffee shop the morning of Nov. 29.
Shovlin worked with Brian Markert, who was a Redmond patrol officer before he transferred to the Lakewood Police Department in 2004.
So she called Markert’s wife, asked the fearful question and hoped for the best.
“I’ve being doing this for 26 years,” said Shovlin, who has worked 15 years at RPD, including the last two as a commander. “I’ve lost a lot of friends.”
Shovlin was relieved to hear that Markert was not the target of the ruthless crime, but she still held a heavy heart.
“Even though we don’t know them, it’s like losing a brother or sister,” said Shovlin, one of nearly 20,000 law enforcement officials who attended the Dec. 8 memorial for Lakewood Police officers Greg Richards, Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Sgt. Mark Renninger at the Tacoma Dome.
The event attracted more than 20,000 law enforcement officials from across the nation, including groups from the Los Angeles, Boston, New York and Chicago Police Departments. Even a large contingent from Canada made the trip to pay their respects for their fallen comrades.
“It was an amazing event,” Shovlin said. “There was a lot of grown men hugging.”
Fifty-five Redmond Police officers and support staff members — nearly half of the Redmond Police Department — attended, participated or provided security or traffic control for the grand procession and “emotional” memorial, Shovlin said.
While Shovlin said the procession and memorial were grand and impressive, she said it was hard imagine that, in this day and age, a person would plot to kill police officers.
“I don’t how people can think about murdering cops,” she said.
This type of crime has a ripple effect, Shovlin said.
“It effects everyone, and mostly our kids,” she said. “They worry about their mommy or daddy. They wonder if their mommy or daddy will come home.”
Redmond Police officer Marty Fuller also knows Markert, the former RPD officer who now works at Lakewood, and feared the worse when he heard about the murders.
Like Shovlin, he was relieved to hear it wasn’t Markert, but hurt to hear fellow officers were killed in broad daylight while on duty.
“For us, we understand what the risks are, we see it everyday out here,” said Fuller, who was on patrol during the procession and memorial. “But our families don’t necessarily understand that. It puts a lot of pressure and stress, not on us, but on everybody who knows us.”
Fuller said he has gotten calls from his sister, “expressing concern and showing appreciation for what I do.”
In addition, the recent officer shootings “reminds us that we need to be cognizent of what everyone else is doing at all times,” he said. “We have to take a concerted attitude to protecting each other at all times.”
And when a fellow officer dies in the line of duty, it is standard for officers from other jurisdictions to lend a helping hand, Fuller said.
Redmond Police officers and support staff logged more than 200 hours of volunteer work for the Lakewood Police Department, providing patrol work and security for the slain officers’ families and other Lakewood officers, in a week’s span after the killings, according to Shovlin.
But while the cop killings have attracted the attention of the nation and beyond, Shovlin said the focus of the department remains keeping Redmond a safe, smart community.
“We learned that we always have to be mindful, we have to believe in our instincts,” said Shovlin, who pointed out that RPD has been bombarded by well wishes from the community. “Now it’s business as usual. We have to move on.”
