[UPDATED] Salt River Police Officer Killed In Loop 101 Crash

A Salt River Police Department officer, Clayton Townsend, was killed in a crash on the Loop 101 on Tuesday. Townsend, according to Arizona Department of Public Safety, stopped a vehicle on the Loop 101 around 6 p.m. and was hit by distracted driver, 40-year-old Jerry Sanstead of Scottsdale.

From AZDPS:

At 6:02 p.m. Officer Clayton Townsend was conducting a traffic stop on a white passenger vehicle for expired registration northbound along SR 101, just south of the McDowell Road off-ramp, within the right-side emergency lane.

At 6:04 p.m., Officer Townsend was standing at the driver’s side door of the vehicle he had stopped when a black passenger vehicle entered the right-side emergency lane, collided with the white passenger vehicle and then struck Officer Townsend. Officer Townsend sustained head trauma during the impact. The driver of the white passenger vehicle sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Another Salt River police officer arrived on the scene and began rendering aid to Officer Townsend. Officer Townsend was transported to Honor Health Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center and was pronounced deceased at 6:35 p.m.

The driver of the white passenger vehicle was also transported to Honor Health Scottsdale Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

During the investigation on scene, the driver of the black passenger car told AZDPS detectives he had been texting during the time his vehicle entered the right-side emergency lane and struck the police officer. A witness told detectives that the driver of the black passenger car was looking down at his phone just before crossing over two traffic lanes and then striking the officer.

Sanstead was arrested and booked into the Maricopa County 4th Avenue Jail for Manslaughter, Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon and Endangerment.

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