[ad_1]
TAMPA, Fla – A Tampa police officer was killed Tuesday morning in an upside down traffic accident.
Senior Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen, a highly decorated 45-year-old officer who had been a 16-year veteran of the department, was killed while answering calls about an oncoming driver on Interstate 275.
What would you like to know
- TPD officer Jesse Madsen, 45, killed in crash the wrong way round
- TPD chief Brian Dugan said the crash happened at 1 a.m. on Tuesday on I-275 near Hillsborough Avenue
- Madsen, a 16-year-old TPD veteran, was a husband, father of 3 and an American sailor.
According to Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan, the crash occurred in the northbound lanes just before 1 a.m. on I-275 near Hillsborough Avenue.
Interstate 275 was closed for several hours in both directions between E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and E. Sligh Ave.
Tampa police began receiving calls at 1 a.m. about a white sedan driving south in the northbound lanes of I-275 at high speed and diverting the lanes.
Dugan said Joshua Daniel Montague, 25, of Golden, Colo., Was driving his rental car sedan south in the northbound lanes.
Within a minute of the initial call, the vehicle crashed into Constable Madsen’s police vehicle between the Hillsborough and Sligh Avenue exits.
The impact killed both Ofcs. Madsen and Montague. A police escort accompanied the OFC. Madsen’s body at the medical examiner’s office early Tuesday.
Tampa Police began receiving calls at 1 a.m. about a white sedan driving south in the northbound lanes of I-275. Within a minute of the initial call, the vehicle crashed into Constable Madsen’s police vehicle between the Hillsborough and Sligh Avenue exits. (Image from Spectrum News)
Madsen was a husband and father of three and a sailor. He has been a seven-time Lifesaving Award winner. He is the 32nd Tampa police officer to die in the line of duty.
“It’s a tragedy,” Dugan said. “Our community has been rocked by these bad drivers. And it is only a complete tragedy that a husband and father of three is now gone.”
The accident is still under investigation.
Dugan said the city of Tampa will have a 7-day mourning period.
Speaking Tuesday morning, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, the city’s former police chief, said the community would pay tribute to Madsen by lighting up town hall and Donwtown bridges in blue.
“It’s a very difficult day for our whole community,” Castor said. “And especially for members of the Tampa Police Department. When we lose an officer, it affects the whole community, but especially the men and women in uniform.”
[ad_2]
Source link