By Cathy Locke
The Sacramento Bee
SOLANO COUNTY — A driver suspected of being involved in a collision that injured a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer on Interstate 80 near Greenback Lane has been taken into custody in Solano County.
Officer David Harvey, a spokesman for the CHP’s Solano Office, said a pursuit of the driver ended at Manuel Campos Parkway off Interstate in Fairfield about 1:50 p.m. The driver was identified only as a male.
Officer Jenna Berry, a CHP spokeswoman, said the collision occurred shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday near Greenback Lane. She said a motorcycle officer was struck by a vehicle that drove away from the scene.
“He appears to have been hit intentionally,” Berry said. She said investigators were still working at the scene, trying to determine the sequence of events.
Viewer submitted this video of the medic-copter landing to assist the #CHP officer hit on I-80. Hear the witness @11 pic.twitter.com/8tPHrMb7AC
— Natalie Brunell (@KCRANatalie) April 8, 2016
PHOTOS: CHP officer injured in hit-and-run crash https://t.co/CsmbP4gjHM pic.twitter.com/gSbf4N2AM2
— kcranews (@kcranews) April 8, 2016
Whether you’re driving by his bike or hearing from home, pray for the family of the CHP officer hit on I 80 @FOX40 pic.twitter.com/xEfd6COdUT
— Nicole Comstock (@ComstockNEWS) April 7, 2016
Officer Tommy Riggin during a news conference at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento said the injured officer was taken to the facility and was in the intensive care unit. He said the officer was assigned to the CHP’s North Sacramento Office.
“One of our own was injured intentionally, and that’s something we can’t comprehend,” he said. Riggin asked for prayers for the officer and his family.
When stopped in Fairfield, the suspect was driving a vehicle that was reported stolen from a contractor working on the California Department of Transportation’s “Across the Top” project on Interstate 80. Dennis Keaton, a Caltrans spokesman, said a damaged vehicle was left in the construction area and a vehicle belonging to Bay Cities Paving and Grading was stolen.
Westbound lanes of Interstate 80 were closed from more than two hours for investigation of the collision and westbound motorists were diverted to Greenback Lane. Caltrans reported that as of about 3:30 p.m. all westbound lanes except the carpool lane had reopened.
Copyright 2016 The Sacramento Bee