CMPD officer charged with DWI, accused of rear-ending a car on I-77 in south Charlotte
An off-duty Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer has been charged with driving while impaired after police said he rear-ended another car on Interstate 77 southbound in south Charlotte early Saturday.
Officer Marsaun Cook was arrested after members of the CMPD DWI Task Force administered sobriety tests and determined that probable cause existed to charge the 32-year-old officer, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department news release.
Officers smelled alcohol after arriving at the scene near Arrowood Road, just before 3 a.m., police said.
Cook was driving his personal vehicle, according to CMPD.
No one was hurt in the wreck, police said.
Cook will be placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of a CMPD Internal Affairs investigation, according to the release.
According to CMPD, Cook was hired on Feb. 20, 2017, and is assigned to the Education Outreach & Youth Services Division as a school resource officer at Olympic High School.
Driver smashed police cars, charged with DWI
As officers managed the scene, another driver smashed into three marked CMPD vehicles, badly damaging two of them, police said. No officers were in the vehicles.
State Highway Patrol troopers later arrested and charged that driver with DWI, according to CMPD. The driver’s name wasn’t available Saturday.
No one was hurt in the second crash, police said.
CMPD chief reacts to incident
On Twitter, CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings said he holds his employees accountable for their decisions.
“I will not tolerate decisions made that violate the law, endanger the public and erode public trust,” Jennings said.
“Any time one of our members falls short of that expectation, thereby violating our standards and internal culture, we own it, and we take immediate steps to ensure that the trust and credibility we have established is not compromised,” he said.
Officer charged with DWI off I-277
On Dec. 7, Jennings announced the arrest of another officer charged with DWI, 14-year CMPD veteran officer Peter Lombardo.
Lombardo was off duty when he was found in his police car along the grassy shoulder of an Interstate 277 off-ramp, Jennings said.
Lombardo had a blood-alcohol level of .17, more than twice the legal limit for driving in the state, Jennings said. The officer who spotted the car along the off-ramp to 12th Street, just before 3 a.m., administered a breath test on Lombardo, according to a police news release.
This story was originally published January 21, 2023 at 1:54 PM.