TAMPA, Florida – A Tampa police officer has died in a car accident.
According to Brian Dugan, Tampa police chief, the crash happened just before 1 a.m. in the northern lanes on Interstate 275 near Hillsborough Avenue.
Jesse Madsen, a 45-year-old highly decorated officer who was a 16-year veteran of the department, was killed.
Interstate 275 is currently closed in both directions between E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and E. Sligh Ave.
What you need to know
- TPD officer Jesse Madsen (45) died in the wrong direction
- Brian Dugan, head of the TPD, said the accident took place on Tuesday at 01:00 on I-275 near Hillsborough Avenue
- Madsen, a 16-year-old TPD veteran, was a man, father of 4 and a U.S. Navy
Police in Tampa began receiving calls at 1 a.m. about a white sedan driving south on the northern lanes of I-275 at high speed and swinging through the lanes.
Within a minute of the original call, the vehicle collided with Madsen’s police vehicle between the Hillsborough exit and Sligh Avenue.
The impact killed both Ofc. Madsen and the 25-year-old male driver of the white sedan. A police escort accompanies Ofc. Madsen’s body to the medical investigating officer early Tuesday.
Police in Tampa began receiving calls at 1 a.m. about a white sedan driving south in the northern lanes of I-275 at high speed and swinging through the lanes. Within a minute of the original call, the vehicle collided with Madsen’s police vehicle between the Hillsborough exit and Sligh Avenue. (Spectrum News image)
Madsen was a husband and father of four and a Marine. He was a 7-time Lifesaving Award winner. He is the 32nd Tampa police officer to die in the line of duty.
“It’s a tragedy,” Dugan said. “Our community is shocked by these wrong drivers. And it’s just a total tragedy to be a husband and father of four.”
The accident is still being investigated.