RICHMOND, Calif. — A 29-year-old Richmond police officer is on life support after his patrol car crashed into a utility pole on a rain-slicked road Saturday morning as he responded to an assault call, authorities say.
Bradley Moody, a veteran of 7 1/2 years on the force, was headed north on Marina Bay Parkway at 8:05 a.m., answering an officer's call for more help, when he lost control of his cruiser and slammed sideways into a light pole, authorities said. The accident happened at a bend in the road near railroad tracks and between Regatta Boulevard and Jetty Drive, in Richmond.
Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan said Moody has been declared brain-dead and is being kept on life support to allow for possible organ donation.
Gagan said the cause of the accident was under investigation, but was linked to road conditions after the overnight storm and light rain.
"The California Highway Patrol was not able to give us an answer as to what happened – but they talked about the first rain making roads very dangerous," Gagan said.
CHP Sgt. Trent Cross said his agency is doing the investigation into what occurred, and it could take two weeks to complete.
"There were some skid marks prior to the collision with the light pole – he broadsided the light pole on the passenger side. The light pole went halfway through the vehicle," Cross said.
The crash occurred in light rain, he said.
The pole was in a raised center island, and the car jumped the curb before it wrapped around the pole, hitting it sideways, Cross said. Witnesses were being interviewed at the scene.
"Right now, the cause is unknown – we do believe the wet roadway was a factor, but what caused the car to lose control is still being investigated," Cross said. The agency will do a mechanical inspection of the vehicle to check for malfunctions prior to the crash.
Moody worked with a Belgian Malinois police dog. The dog was injured in the crash, but is expected to survive, Gagan said.
Moody was rushed to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where a group of friends, family and fellow officers were grieving late Saturday.
Moody married a former dispatcher for the department, and they have two young children, Gagan said.
Chris Tallerico, a Richmond police commissioner, said Moody was a close friend. He described him as an exemplary officer doing a highly demanding job.
"My friend is gone. I loved that kid like a brother. It just tears my heart out to see him gone," Tallerico said.
"This kid was one of a kind," Tallerico said. "We have a department of almost 200 officers. This kid was the pinnacle within the department. He had a photographic memory. Once he saw someone's face, he could tell you everything about them – it was almost like a computer."
Tallerico said that Moody was a hard-charging officer who enjoyed fighting crime in a tough city but was respected and generated few or no complaints.
He said he accompanied Moody on a ride-along patrol one night and responded to a melee. After the violence was over, an entire family embraced Moody. "He said later he had arrested every member of the family," Tallerico said.
"To command such respect, to see a whole family go out of their way to shake his hand and hug him – that was extraordinary. I have never seen that before, and I spent a lot of time in a police car. I have never saw that before. I have never seen that since," Tallerico said.
The last line-of-duty deaths for the department came in 1992, when two officers, Leonard Garcia, 31, and David Haynes, 30, were gunned down three days after Christmas as they responded to a domestic violence call. The gunman committed suicide.