Officer killed by car while running after fleeing man on interstate, Tennessee cops say
A Tennessee police officer died after he was hit by a car while chasing a suspect Monday night, media outlets report.
Spencer Bristol, 31, with the Hendersonville Police Department was pursuing a vehicle when the driver ran into another car, WTVF reported.
The driver, 19-year-old Kevin Jordan, was detained, according to the Nashville Tennessean, but the passenger ran off.
As Bristol chased the suspect across Interstate 65, police say he was hit by an oncoming car. The woman driving the car pulled over and was “distraught” about what happened, WTVF reported.
Bristol was taken to a hospital, where died from his injuries, the Tennessean reported.
Jordan will face felony evading and reckless endangerment charges along with traffic-related charges, according to WTVF.
Officials initially reported that the second suspect, identified as Rodney Farmer, was spotted by a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper in a Hooter’s restaurant and later apprehended in a drainage culvert, the Tennessean reported.
But they later determined the Hooters patron was not the passenger.
Farmer, who was not in custody as of Tuesday afternoon, has four outstanding warrants: driving with a revoked license, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault and evading arrest in a motor vehicle, Hendersonville Police Chief Mickey Miller said in a press conference broadcast on Facebook by WZTV.
Bristol had been with the Hendersonville Police Department since 2015, the department wrote on Facebook. He also served in the U.S. Navy from 2007 to 2012, Miller said in the press conference.
“I never saw anyone who wanted to be a police officer as much as he did,” Miller said.
Bristol had a wife and a 3-year-old daughter.
“Spencer Bristol was an example of what an officer should be,” Miller said. “He loved his job and this police department grieves with his family over the loss of our brother.”
