{"id":19804,"date":"2025-10-23T17:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T17:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/19804\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T17:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T17:01:15","slug":"la-mesa-poa-launches-fundraiser-for-fallen-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/19804\/","title":{"rendered":"La Mesa POA launches fundraiser for fallen officer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The La Mesa Police Officers\u2019 Association has nearly reached the halfway mark of its goal in a fundraising campaign to support the family of Lauren Craven, a La Mesa police officer who was killed in the line of duty while assisting a motorist at a crash scene on Interstate 8.<\/p>\n

The association\u2019s goal is to raise $50,000 for Craven\u2019s family. As of Thursday morning, contributions<\/a> to the fundraiser had reached $22,086.<\/p>\n

\"LaLa Mesa police Officer Lauren Craven. (La Mesa Police Department)<\/p>\n

Craven, a Bend, Ore., native who had just turned 25, was aiding a driver whose car had overturned on the eastbound side of the freeway at Fairmount Avenue in San Diego when another vehicle struck them shortly before 10:30 p.m. Monday, according to the La Mesa Police Department.<\/p>\n

Craven, who joined the department in February 2024 and was assigned to its patrol unit, died at the scene, as did 19-year-old De\u2019Veonte Morris, the driver involved in the initial crash.<\/p>\n

Authorities have not released information regarding the person whose vehicle struck Craven and Morris.<\/p>\n

David Craven, Lauren\u2019s father, said that his daughter wanted to dedicate her life to being \u201cthat good cop\u201d for anybody who needed her.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day we would talk on her way home from work, which was 6 in the morning, or on the way to work,\u201d he said. \u201cShe loved it. She loved getting up to go to work. She was excited to get out there and serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying not to focus on all the decades more than she should have had. I\u2019m trying to focus on the fact that everything in her life was thumbs up as she progressed through this journey. Personal relationships, everything. The way she viewed the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craven\u2019s father said her goal of becoming an officer initially seemed impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot physically qualified, changed that. Became physically qualified in an environment that\u2019s male-dominated, pushed right through it, became respected. All with a goal to help with compassion,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Ray Sweeney, during a news conference Tuesday afternoon, described Craven, a 2023 Loyola Marymount University graduate, as \u201ca light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 23, 2025 at 9:26 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The La Mesa Police Officers\u2019 Association has nearly reached the halfway mark of its goal in a fundraising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,138,3053,6572,181,23,100,74,84,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-19804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-east-county","11":"tag-la-mesa","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-county","17":"tag-san-diego-headlines","18":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19804","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=19804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}