Slain Police officer Laid to Rest After Funeral Procession Through Akron

Hundreds of people, including police officers and area government officials, turned out Saturday for a funeral service for a slain Akron Police officer.

The officer, Justin Winebrenner, was shot and killed while off duty Nov. 16 at Papa Don’s Pub on East Market Street. Four others suffered injuries in the shooting.

According to a report in the Akron Beacon Journal, following the funeral service at the University of Akron’s Rhodes Arena (which was open to the public), police escorted Winebrenner’s casket through downtown Akron, coming to a halt in front of the police station before continuing to Holy Cross Cemetery.

As the hearse carrying the officer’s body was escorted by Akron and area police departments, citizens lined the streets, the Beacon Journal reported.

Witnesses to the Nov. 16 shootings told reporters that Winebrenner, 32, acted heroically during the incident at Papa Don’s Pub, according to another report in the Beacon Journal. He was shot in the chest while grappling with a man who had been asked to leave the bar earlier and then returned with a firearm. The police officer died about a half hour later at Akron City Hospital, the Beacon Journal reported.

“He disregarded his own life for somebody else,” Darryl Anderson of Tallmadge was quoted in the article. Without Winebrenner’s actions, Anderson said, more people might have died in the mass shooting.