Police theorize the night’s events leading to the deadly crash
HENRICO, Va. (WRIC) — Henrico police have started theorizing the events that led up to a fatal crash that killed a 24-year-old officer Wednesday night, 8News has learned.
Less than three hours after three cars were involved in a collision at the intersection of Chamberlayne Road and Wilkinson Road, Henrico investigators deployed tools to help reconstruct the scene.
During a press conference Thursday morning, Police Chief Eric English told a room of reporters that Officer Trey Sutton was behind the wheel of a police cruiser and another officer was next to him. English also said someone actively in custody was also in the car at the time.
The passenger side of the cruiser had been hit by a Dodge Ram pickup truck, believed to be traveling south on Chamberlayne just before 8:29 p.m.
An initial theory from police Wednesday night was that the cruiser was traveling west on Wilkinson Road, while the pickup headed south on Chamberlayne before they collided in the intersection. Police pointed out skid marks from the truck just before the intersection.
Today, police shared another possibility: was the police cruiser turning left onto Wilkinson when it collided with the truck?
Police believe it was the cruiser that hit a third car idling at the intersection on Wilkinson’s west side after the cruiser spun out of control.
County records say ambulances arrived at the hospital twenty minutes after the accident was initially reported.
At 9:43 p.m. Henrico police tweeted a traffic alert about lane closures headed toward the intersection. At 10:43 p.m., a spokesperson for police said two of their own and someone else was critically hurt.
During Thursday’s press conference, Chief English held back tears, saying, “the last thing you want as a police chief is to lose one of your members. So, and I want to just tell you, me personally, I look at every member of this division as my responsibility.”
A police spokesperson said both officers in the damaged cruiser were unable to speak after the accident. The most recent update on the condition of those still in the hospital was that the second officer, and the person in custody at the time were still fighting for their lives.
