TAMPA, Fla. – A Tampa police officer died early on Tuesday in a ghost traffic accident.
Master Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen, a 45-year-old highly decorated officer who was a 16-year veteran of the department, was killed when he responded to calls about a ghost driver on Interstate 275.
What you need to know
- TPD officer Jesse Madsen, 45, died in a ghost crash
- TPD chief Brian Dugan said the crash occurred on I-275 near Hillsborough Avenue at 1 a.m. on Tuesday
- Madsen, a 16-year TPD veteran, was a husband, father of 3 children and a United States Marine
According to Brian Dugan, Tampa Police Chief, the crash occurred in the northern lanes just before 1am on I-275 near Hillsborough Avenue.
Interstate 275 was closed in both directions for several hours between E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and E. Sligh Ave.
Tampa police began receiving calls at 1 a.m. about a white sedan heading south at high speed in the northern lanes of I-275 and winding through the lanes.
Dugan said 25-year-old Joshua Daniel Montague of Golden, Colorado was driving his rental sedan south in the north lanes.
Within a minute of the original call, the vehicle crashed into Officer Madsen’s police vehicle between the Hillsborough and Sligh Avenue exits.
The impact killed both Ofc. Madsen and Montague. A police escort accompanied Ofc. Madsen’s body to the medical examiner’s office Tuesday.
Tampa police began receiving calls at 1 a.m. about a white sedan heading south in the northern lanes of I-275. Within a minute of the original call, the vehicle crashed into Officer Madsen’s police vehicle between the Hillsborough and Sligh Avenue exits. (Spectrum News Image)
Madsen was a husband and father of three children and a Marine. He was a seven-time winner of the Lifesaving Award. He is the 32nd Tampa police officer to be killed on duty.
“This is a tragedy,” said Dugan. “Our community has been startled by these wrong-way drivers. And it’s just a complete tragedy that a husband and father of three are now gone.”
The crash is still under investigation.
Dugan said the city of Tampa will have a seven-day mourning period.
Tampa mayor Jane Castor, the city’s former police chief, said Tuesday morning that the community will honor Madsen by illuminating City Hall and the Donwtown bridges blue.
“This is a very difficult day for our entire community,” said Castor. And specifically for the members of the Tampa Police Department. If we lose an officer, it will affect the entire community, but especially the men and women in uniform. ‘