‘She got her dream': La Mesa officer killed on I-8 had a passion to help, father says
The father of a fallen La Mesa police officer who was fatally struck by a car after stopping to help the victim of a deadly crash on Interstate 8 in Grantville Monday night shared countless stories of her daughter’s bravery, resolve and passion to help others.
As the La Mesa Police Department and the community mourn 25-year-old Officer Lauren Craven, just one state away, her family is grappling with the devastating news.
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David Craven got a knock on the door at his Oregon home Monday night.
“‘Can we come inside?’ And I said, ‘Is this about my daughter Lauren?’ ‘Yep.’ ‘Is she dead?’ Unfortunately, she is.’ Where do you go from there?” David Craven said.
Lauren Craven was killed in the line of duty. She had tried to stop and help someone fatally injured, in what would be the first of several crashes to pile on. Tragically, she was hit by a car.
“She can’t be dead. I’m looking at these pictures of her. I just saw her a few weeks ago. She’s a sweet person. She’s gone,” her father said.
But David Craven wants to make sure her memory stays. He mentioned how her plan to wear a badge evolved from her own personal trauma in Los Angeles. It was an incident, he said, that began with a spiked drink and ended with help from detectives and police.
“’I want to be that person for other women and others — anybody in trouble that needs me.’ She decided right then and there. ‘I’m going to become a police officer,'” David Craven said.
Her father talked about her perseverance to get through the police academy a second time, when the first didn’t work out.
He then talked about her praise from fellow officers when she assisted in a high-speed chase, still as a trainee. NBC 7 cameras were rolling that day in May of 2025, during a breaking news incident.
“I hate that she’s not able to continue her career, but I’m focused on the fact that she got to her dream. It was the start of it, and she was never happier,” David Craven said.
The California Highway Patrol had not provided any new details in the fatal multi-car crash investigation as of Wednesday afternoon.
The La Mesa Police Department said Lauren Craven’s death is the first ever in the line of duty.
