East side neighbors rally for Lorain Police Department with lemonade stand this weekend

LORAIN — With Styrofoam cups and a pitcher of fresh lemonade, Dorothy Burnham and neighborhood kids on Lorain's east side hope to help Lorain's finest after a shooting that left one Lorain police officer dead and two injured earlier this week. Burnham and her neighbor's daughter, Gianni Bason, 5, set up a lemonade stand in Burnham's Jackson Street front yard on Friday. As the neighborhood's unofficial grandmother, Burnham plans to enlist Gianni and other neighborhood kids to run the stand and donate the stand's proceeds to the Lorain Police Officers' Charitable Foundation to help the family of deceased Officer Phillip Wagner and injured officers Brent Payne and Peter Gale. Wagner, 35, of North Ridgeville, was shot and gravely injured during an ambush by lone gunman Michael Parker, 28, of Lorain, on Wednesday while eating lunch with fellow officer Gale at the Colorado Avenue Industrial Park. Wagner died from his injuries Thursday. Gale and responding Officer Brent Payne were injured in the shooting. Payne remains at Cleveland's MetroHealth Medical Center; Gale was treated at Mercy Health - Lorain. The news struck a chord with Burnham, who felt her house shake when Cleveland FBI agents detonated explosives found in Parker's car on Wednesday. As news of the ambush began to spread, Burnham remembered Wagner. Her grandson recently met the 35-year-old LPD veteran and climbed into his police cruiser to play with the lights and sirens before being sent on his way with a junior police badge and stickers. "It's a punch in the gut," Burnham said of learning more about the shooting less than a mile from her east side home. Gianni's mother, Alyssa Dunlap, also heard the explosions and felt her house shake. She said her older daughter is dating one of Lorain's auxiliary officers who came to their home "shattered" after working Wednesday's scene. Auxiliary police helped block and redirect traffic on and around Colorado Avenue while crews from countless other agencies scoured the area for a potential second shooter and then collected evidence off River Bend Drive. "It's really rough," said Dunlap, the niece and stepdaughter of police officers. "You know they're in a dangerous field, but when something like this happens, it makes you want to hug them a little tighter." Parker acted alone, according to Elyria Police Chief James Welsh. While Dunlap and her daughter cannot give a bear hug to the entire Lorain Police Department, they decided to help Burnham's lemonade stand. She said Gianni dressed as a cop for Halloween and wants to be a police officer when she grows up. Whatever the group makes will help defray costs for Wagner, Payne and Gale's families. "It's just donations, Burnham said. "If we make $1 million, that'd be great … If it rains, I'll grab an umbrella — officers don't come in when it rains." Burnham and Gianni will be selling lemonade 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. all weekend at 2249 Jackson St. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.