The route ends at the Tacoma Dome, site of the memorial service, beginning at 1 p.m. More than 20,000 people are expected to attend. Doors open at 11 a.m. The service will be televised by several media outlets.
There are also some off-site locations for the public to gather to watch the memorial:
- the University of Washington, Tacoma
- Olson Auditorium at Pacific Lutheran University
- the Christian Faith Center in Federal Way.
B.C. officers head south for solemn memorial
ctvbc.ca
More than 500 British Columbian Mounties and police officers headed south for a solemn memorial Tuesday.
The group joins thousands of officers and first responders heading to Tacoma, Washington to honour four slain officers.
Sergeant Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42, were shot to death by a lone gunman while working on their laptops inside a suburban coffee shop November 29.
Sgt. Peter Theissen told CTV News the incident resonates heavily with officers in Canada and all across the world.
"We all share a common bond. We all go to work every day carrying a risk that we could be killed carrying out our duties," he said.
Four Mounties were killed in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, in March 2005 while executing a search warrant on a rural farm. Theissen said the incident, the worst in 100 years for the RCMP, is something "that never leaves a police officer's mind."
"We can appreciate what the police community in the United States are going through and we certainly share their grief and share supporting them as much as we can," he said.
Memorial
The memorial includes a three-hour procession as the caskets of the officers are placed at the Tacoma Dome. As many as 20,000 officers are expected to attend.
The gunman, 37-year-old Maurice Clemmons was shot dead by police in a south Seattle neighbourhood after a massive two-day manhunt.
Clemmons was carrying a handgun that belonged to one of the slain officers, police said.
The motive for the shootings is still unclear, though Pierce County Sheriff spokesperson Ed Troyer told the Tacoma News-Tribune Clemmons indicated the night before the shooting "that he was going to shoot police and watch the news."
The suspect
As the investigation continues into Clemmons' actions, questions are being raised as to why he was paroled from prison earlier this decade.
Clemmons had been serving a 108-year sentence for a teenage crime spree, but was released in 2000 after the Governor of Arkansas -- then Mike Huckabee -- commuted his sentence. Clemmons quickly returned to prison for a parole violation, but he was released again in 2004.
At the time of his death, Clemmons was facing charges for allegedly assaulting a police officer and raping a child. But he was released from jail after posting bail through the assistance of Jail Sucks Bail Bonds.
With files from The Associated Press
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