By Ashley Silver
PLATTEVILLE, Colo. — An officer has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation after a suspect he placed in his patrol vehicle was hit by a train.
According to 9 News, the incident began when officers were called to a road rage incident involving a woman tailgating a vehicle and pulling a gun. Once officers arrived, they parked their patrol vehicle behind the suspect’s car on the railroad tracks. The officers then secured the scene, placing the woman in the back of the Platteville squad car as they searched her vehicle. It was during that time that a train slammed into the patrol car with the woman inside.
“Those who are in your custody, you’ve detained them or they’re in the back of your patrol car, you have a duty of care toward that subject,” Ed Obayashi, a California sheriff deputy, told 9 News. “Why didn’t you move the vehicle off the tracks? That’s going to be the biggest question.”
The suspect, Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 20, was transposed to the hospital with serious injuries, but is expected to survive.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is continuing to investigate the crash, while the Fort Lupton police department and the Colorado State Patrol are both reviewing the details that led up to the incident, including the initial road rage call.