Cop That Crashed and Burned Was Fried.
Quote:
Last Updated: July 09. 2011 8:52PM
Detroit cop injured in fiery crash on I-96 was drunk, police chief says
The Detroit News
Detroit — A Detroit police sergeant pulled from his smoldering cruiser early Thursday morning on Interstate 96 moments before the crashed car burst into flames was under the influence of alcohol and a controlled substance, the city's police chief said Saturday night.
Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. said a preliminary investigation revealed that during the sergeant's shift, which began at midnight on July 7, several attempts were made by the zone dispatcher to contact him. All of the attempts went unanswered.
At 4 a.m. the sergeant was driving a marked scout car when he was involved in a vehicular accident on the eastbound I-96 near Martin Luther King Boulevard. The freeway was closed for about three hours following the crash.
The officer was taken to a local hospital, treated, and released.
Godbee said that at the time of the accident the sergeant was under the influence of alcohol and tested positive for a controlled substance.
"I am disheartened that a member of the Detroit Police Department holding a supervisory rank, who has been sworn to protect and serve; and to display the highest level of professionalism, would endanger the lives of others as well as his own," Godbee said in a statement .
The chief said he has ordered the sergeant be immediately suspended without pay.
"Alleged conduct of this nature will lead me to seek dismissal of the sergeant from the Detroit Police Department," Godbee said. "I owe that to the citizens of Detroit and the thousands of Detroit Police Department members who serve this city with honor and integrity."
A Good Samaritans pulled the sergeant from his smoldering cruiser before it burst into flames.
Motorist Wally Senkow, 56, of Steinback, Manitoba, left his tractor-trailer truck to assist in the rescue at about 4:30 a.m. He saw the officer inside and strained to open the driver's door.
"I couldn't get it to budge," Senkow said. "Luckily, there was another younger man nearby, and he really banged on that door to get the officer out."
Michigan State Police officials with the Detroit Post said the crash involved another vehicle.
Senkow said he at first didn't want to pull the sergeant from the car, but thought the car was going to explode.
"It was smoking heavily when we got him out," Snekow said. "We knew it was just a matter of time."
The car burst into flames a few minutes after the officer was helped out of the vehicle.
Senkow said the man was disoriented and didn't seem to know what was going on.
"He asked what happened," Senkow said. "He had no recollection of anything."
http://detnews.com/article/20110709/...ice-chief-says
