Flint Michigan Police Officer Killed When Cruisers Collide During Chase
July 19, 2005 – 20:24 pm
BURTON, Mich. (AP) — Two police cruisers collided during a chase Saturday, killing a Flint police officer who had been with the force four months and seriously injuring three other officers, police said.
The crash happened about 1:50 a.m. EDT as police were trying to stop a driver in Genesee County, police said in a statement. Police said the driver led officers through three communities before being caught.
The two cruisers collided in Burton, crashing into a house. One car flipped over and caught fire, witnesses said.
Police from Flint and the Michigan State Police continued the chase and arrested a 19-year-old man, who was being held in the Genesee County jail pending charges. A female passenger also was expected to be charged.
Police had tried to stop the man after he was driving erratically, Saginaw radio station WSGW reported.
The officer who died was identified as Owen Fisher, 24, a Flint native. He could have worked anywhere in the state but wanted to be a police officer in his hometown, colleagues told The Flint Journal.
”He was a very enthusiastic officer, dedicated, hard working,” Deputy Police Chief Gary Hagler said.
Fisher was a graduate of Kalamazoo College and a 2000 graduate of Powers Catholic High School, where he played soccer.
Fisher was a passenger in a traffic cruiser driven by an officer with six years of experience. The cruiser was hit by a patrol cruiser driven by an 11-year veteran. Both cars were responding to a call to help other officers in the chase.
The driver of the traffic cruiser was hospitalized in serious condition. The other driver was hospitalized in serious but stable condition, while his partner, a six-year veteran, also was in serious but stable condition.
Additional information about the officers wasn’t immediately released.
The crash was being investigated by Burton police.
A state police trooper also sustained an ankle injury after officers stopped the suspect’s car and a Flint police cruiser bumped the suspect’s car into the trooper’s car, said Trooper James Williams at the Flint Post.
The last Flint Police Department officer to die in the line of duty was Leslie Keely, who died in a crash during a September 1999 chase.