By ERIN BECK
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A woman remained in serious condition late Thursday after being involved in a collision with a Charleston police cruiser on Wednesday, according to the police chief.
Chief Brent Webster said police believe the officer, who was rushing to a call, was not using his warning lights or siren.
Charleston police were dispatched to a domestic call at Orchard Manor at about 10:10 a.m., Webster said. A woman had called about a burglary involving a knife.
Webster noted that the call “necessitated a quick response.”
A responding patrol officer, who was on Bigley Avenue when the call came in, collided with a woman driving in the 400 block of Washington Street West. No one else was in either vehicle.
Webster said neither person appeared to be injured, at first, but their conditions worsened throughout the day. The woman, believed to be in her late 70s, was still being treated at a local hospital Thursday. Webster said officers are in regular contact with the family.
“She is conscious and has been communicating some with family,” he wrote in an email.
Doctors suggested the officer be given time off work to rest, Webster said. He was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon.
Webster said preliminary information suggests the officer’s lights and sirens were not on and that he was traveling above the speed limit. Accident reconstructionists continue to investigate.
Webster said he believes the officer was traveling in the left lane of the two-lane, one-way road. The collision occurred near the intersection of Washington Street West and Maryland Avenue.
Webster said he anticipates releasing names and answers to further questions at a later time.
Other officers responded to the call at Orchard Manor.
In that incident, a pregnant woman reported that an acquaintance known only to her as “Mob” forced his way into her apartment, according to Lt. Steve Cooper, the Charleston Police Department’s chief of detectives.
The man was holding a knife and assaulted her, leaving bruises on her arms, Cooper said. He fled in a black sedan.
Charleston Mayor Danny Jones would not comment, saying he would leave interviews up to the police chief.
A similar incident, in 2005, resulted in the death of a motorist on MacCorkle Avenue. In that incident, a Charleston police officer was speeding along MacCorkle Avenue in Kanawha City without using his lights or siren when he struck another vehicle, killing the driver.
On Oct. 14, 2005, Brandon Tagayun was responding as back-up to a domestic dispute call at the Kanawha Mall. Patsy Sizemore, 69, of Charlton Heights, died in the collision.
Tagayun resigned from the department in April 2006.
In March 2007, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors — speeding and failure to use his cruiser’s emergency lights. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped a negligent-homicide charge against the officer. He received one year’s probation and was fined $100 for each charge. He was later hired by the St. Albans Police Department.
In July 2006, the city of Charleston settled, for $1.8 million, a civil lawsuit filed by Sizemore’s husband, Gary, who survived the crash.
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