{"id":16815,"date":"2025-10-22T00:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/16815\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T00:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:17:11","slug":"california-cop-25-is-killed-as-she-stops-to-help-at-crash-site-is-hit-by-another-car-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/16815\/","title":{"rendered":"California cop, 25, is killed as she stops to help at crash site, is hit by another car"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A 25-year-old police officer was struck and killed after she stopped to help a motorist in an overturned vehicle on a San Diego freeway on Monday night, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">La Mesa Police Officer Lauren Craven was on her way back to La Mesa from a jail around 10:30 p.m. when she came across the vehicle on Interstate 8 and stopped to assist, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lamesapolicedepartment\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a statement;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">a statement<\/a> from police. After exiting her vehicle to help, she was hit by another driver.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Portrait of a woman in police uniform.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"1097\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fa6821a2d7a44fa4e7a9398e121860a5.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>La Mesa Police Officer Lauren Craven was killed on Monday night, the department&#8217;s first line-of-duty death. (La Mesa Police Department)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Craven and the driver of the overturned vehicle both died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Craven had been with the La Mesa Police Department for about a year and a half, starting with the patrol division in 2024. It was the first line-of-duty death in the department&#8217;s history, according to La Mesa Police Lt. Travis Higgins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Officer Craven\u2019s actions in her final moments exemplified her unwavering dedication to service and the safety of others \u2014 a reflection of how she lived every day,&#8221; the statement said. Craven had been with the department since 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Flags at the California Capitol flew at half-staff Tuesday in honor of Officer Craven, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Officer Craven served her community with pride and dedication,&#8221; Newsom said in a statement. &#8220;Jennifer and I are heartbroken by her loss and the significant impact her passing leaves on the larger San Diego community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">City News Service contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/newsletters\/essential-california?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=newsletter_module&amp;utm_campaign=essential-california\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This story originally appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-10-21\/25-year-old-officer-killed-by-vehicle-while-assisting-motorists-in-san-diego\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Los Angeles Times;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 25-year-old police officer was struck and killed after she stopped to help a motorist in an overturned&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,457,12850,13859,14550],"class_list":["post-16815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-la-mesa-police-department","tag-lauren-craven","tag-san-diego-freeway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}