Tens of thousands visit memorial Facebook page

A Facebook page created to honor the four slain Lakewood police officers has become a repository for the community's shock and grief. By midday Monday, the page had more than 60,000 visits from people around the country.

The page's creator, Jacob Kimerer, a student at Edmonds-Woodway High School, is a part of the close-knit family of law enforcement. Kimerer, is himself a Police Explorer who volunteers with the Edmonds Police Department.

His father, Scott Kimerer, is chief of the Burien Police Department and his uncle, Clark Kimerer, is Deputy Chief of the Seattle Police Department.

"It doesn't surprise me at all that Jake would do something like this," said Edmonds Assistant Police Chief Jim Lawless.

One post Monday, from Alison Marsden of Snohomish, expressed the grief many were feeling.

"When I was a child we would wave to the police and firefighters as they drove by. We saw them as people that were there to protect and care for us. I still feel the same way today. I am sickened by this act of violence. My prayers go out to the families. I cannot imagine what they are going through. What a horrible loss to the community," Marsden wrote.

Jacob Kimerer has participated in the Edmonds Explorer club for several years, said Lawless. The teen was honored by the Edmonds Police Department in May for helping to apprehend two men who had broken into a vendors booth at the 2008 Taste of Edmonds.

Kimerer and three other explorers were providing over-night security when they spotted the trespassers at about 2 a.m., Lawless said. Kimerer shone a flashlight in one of the trespasser's eyes and ordered him to the ground. The suspect complied.

Lawless said that police arrived and arrested the man. A police dog tracked the second suspect, who had fled on foot, to a nearby bush where he was hiding.

"Jake and the other explorers initiated a successful burglary investigation," said Lawless. He said Kimerer's goal is to follow in his father's and uncle's footsteps.

"He very much wants to be a police officer for all the right reasons," Lawless said.

Lynn Thompson: 206-464-8305 or lthompson@seattletimes.com