Lakewood police slayings appear to be worst of their kind in state history

The killing of four Lakewood police officers appears to be the worst attack on law enforcement officers in state history.

Previous incidents in which several officers were killed include:

• In 1906, Marshal Michael Glover, Kennewick Police Officer Joseph Holzhey, and Deputy Marshal Forest Perry were shot and killed as the officers and a posse attempted to arrest several burglary suspects at a hobo camp.

• In 1921, three members of the Seattle Police Department were killed by a man suspected of carrying a weapon. Two officers were shot when the man was first spotted on Broadway. The third victim, a detective, was shot later in the day when he spotted the suspect in downtown Seattle.

• In 1935, two Seattle police officers were killed responding to a burglary just north of the city limits.

• On Easter in 1949, in what became known as the Easter Massacre in Pullman, the Whitman County sheriff, a deputy, and a Pullman police officer were shot dead by a gunman.

• In 1987, Island County Deputy Sheriff's Deputy William Heffernan and Deputy John Saxerud were shot and killed by a man they had arrested for drunken driving. The man pulled out a gun and shot the deputies as the three men were in the jail's processing area.

Information from historylink.org, The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc., and the Seattle Police Department Web site is included in this report.