LORAIN, Ohio — Nearly three months after a tragedy in Lorain, the community there continues to rally support.
Thursday, the Lorain Police Officers Charitable Foundation accepted one of its largest donations since a deadly ambush in late July. Discount Drug Mart presented a check for $21,187.
The company, which opened its first store in Lorain County and has a location down the street from where the deadly shooting happened, collected the money from a round-up campaign at its store across the county.
“When tragedy struck Lorain, it struck us that we needed to do something,” said Discount Drug Mart Government and Public Affairs director Steve Ferris.
In late July, three Lorain officers were shot during an ambush on Riverbend Dr. Officer Phillip Wagner died from his injuries. Officers Brent Payne and Peter Gale are still off-duty and recovering.
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Thursday’s donation is the latest and among the largest to benefit the officers and families involved in the shooting.
“Them being down, unable to help their spouse or their kids, it takes a toll. So a little bit of money here and there, it helps take that burden off,” said Lorain Police Detective Matt Hartman, the president of Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lorain Lodge #3.
Other fundraisers have collected donations in the wake of the tragedy. Hartman said as of September, the FOP had received more than $200,000 for the officers and their families. The donations came from as far away as Florida and Texas and continue to arrive.
“The support that we’ve received is just unbelievable and humbling, if I had to pick one word,” said Lorain Police Capt. Jacob Morris.
Signs of support are still displayed around Lorain. On Broadway, many of the downtown businesses have prints of a Lorain Police badge with Officer Wagner’s badge number and an end-of-watch banner.
“This is a community, Lorain. Everyone on Broadway, all the business owners, everybody’s great,” said Debbie McCartney, the owner of SQP Print Center.
She explained the business originally printed the end-of-watch sign for Officer Wagner’s funeral to go along with a floral arrangement created by a Lorain flower shop.
“Then Main Street Lorain came by and said, ‘Hey, we want to buy that and give it to all the businesses.’ [I said], ‘Oh gosh, no. We’re just going to print however many you need and then you guys can just pass them out,’” McCartney said.
Main Street Lorain handed the posters out to more than a dozen downtown businesses.
“I think we all kind of all banded together to show support for the city and for law enforcement,” said Felicia Simulcik, owner of The Plant Shop. “I don’t know if I’ll ever take it down, honestly.”
Lorain Police said the symbolic showings of support are as meaningful as the monetary donations.
“We’ll never go back to normal. But still hearing that there’s people out there that still care and still giving their condolences, it helps,” said Hartman.
