PD Editorials: Looters compound grief

<p>Four lives taken in a needless car crash was tragic. Preying on the Maloney family afterward was truly despicable.</p><p>John and Susan Maloney died Saturday along with their 5- and 8-year-old children, struck by a speeding driver who apparently ran a red light at Highway 37 and Lakeville Highway as they returned from a Thanksgiving vacation. By Tuesday morning, their home in Sonoma had been ransacked by burglars who stole a car, jewelry and other valuables.</p><p>This callous, opportunistic crime compounded the grief and shock of friends, neighbors and even people who never met the Maloneys.</p><p>Police found one of Susan Maloney’s credit cards during a routine traffic stop hours later in San Mateo. Investigators arrested two people and recovered most, if not all, of the stolen belongings at a home in Redwood City. Credit the quick recovery to alert police officers — and random chance. </p><p>Steve Culbertson, the 19-year-old driver who hit the Maloneys, also died. According to one man, Culbertson may have been drinking in a Petaluma restaurant before the crash. If that’s true, someone else may share responsibility, morally if not legally, for this entirely avoidable loss of life.</p><p>For now, we share Sonoma Police Chief Bret Sackett’s hope that solving the burglary “will bring a certain sense of comfort” to a family “already having to deal with tremendous grieving and loss of a loved one.”</p><p>There was another tragedy last weekend, and we’re also also saddened by the murders of four Lakewood, Wash. police officers who were shot and killed Sunday as they sat together in a coffee shop, preparing to start their shift. May they rest in peace.</p>