Updated at 1:30 pm, with dead officer’s identity and correcting his gender.
by Frank James and Rick Pearson
A motorcycle officer was fatally injured as he escorted Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign motorcade through Dallas this morning.
The officer identified by police as Victor Lozada-Tirado, who held the rank of senior corporal, was in his 20th year on the police force. Police said he was married and had four children.
Clinton, seeking the Democratic nomination against Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, continued with her campaign event in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, but curtailed a following rally scheduled for Fort Worth.
Pearson, who is traveling with the Clinton campaign, sent me several e-mails in the minutes following the accident. Here’s a compilation:
On bus, motorcade motorcycle cop went down Lost helmet. Other motorcade cop comforting the one went down. This is in dallas. Still enroute to event… Just left dealey plaza when it happened… Debris was strewn thruout road, fiberglass from front cycle fender. Pool of blood was very visible by officer. Officer was 30 50 feet in front of bike, on ground, head being comforted by another officer as motorcade was waved by… Hearing its a fatal.
Dealey Plaza, of course, was the site of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Once the motorcade reached its destination, Clinton cancelled a scheduled question and answer session with reporters, and, in a very measured tone, delivered the following statement:
I have just learned of the death of a Dallas police officer in a devastating accident that occurred as the motorcycle officers were leading our cars to this site. We are just heartsick over this loss of life in the line of duty and I have asked that my condolences be relayed to the family. I am going to call them as soon as its appropriate and I have the information to do so. I have placed a call to the chief of police expressing my sympathy. This reminds us once again what our men and women in law enforcement do every single day and it is important that we respect and appreciate their service. I certainly am grateful for all they do for me and, more importantly, what they do for the citizens of cities like Dallas and others across our country. But I just wanted to express my deepest condolences to the family and to the Dallas police department on this tragic, tragic loss.
Later, Clinton cut short a campaign event in Ft. Worth, Tex.
Here is what she told the audience in Ft. Worth:
” And it is for me a very personal moment because I have bneen fortunate over a number of years now to be served not only by the Secret Service, who do an extraordinary job, but they work with police and other law enf officials everywhere we go in the country. So it is deeply, deeply tragic that this loss occurred and I know that our thoughts and our prayers are with his family, with those with whom he served on a daily basis to protect the people of dallas. Because of this tragedy, I know you understand that we can’t have a rally. It would not be appropriate for me to um, take this opportunity as I had planned, to be with you to talk about the election. I think it is self evident how much I appreciate your coming, how grateful I am to you, how important it is that every single day we not only think about those who serve us, and all the ways we are served, but that we express that appreciation to those who take care of making our communities safe, caring for the sick, teaching our children, doing the public service that is really at the core of who we are as Americans and what we want for our future. So thank you very much for being here and God bless you all.
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Pearson had this additional information in one of his later e-mails:
Motorcade was from Love Field airport in Dallas enroute to event site at the corner of Center and Zang Streets. Incident occurred shortly after the vehicles had left Dealey Plaza. The motorcycle was lying in the left hand lane with visible skid marks. The officer was lying in the right hand lane, face down, about 50 feet ahead of the bike. No EMTs or emergency personnel had arrived by the time we went through. Event now finished in Dallas and a police led motorcade now taking campaign to event in Fort Worth.
Later in the day, as Clinton sought to restart her campaigning for the day at an event in Columbus, Ohio, Clinton wove the tragedy into a discussion on ways to revitalize the nation’s economy. She noted that the officer left behind four children, two in college, a high schooler and a 9-year-old.
“I thought about the help that that family will need and the hope that they will have educational and other opportunities that we want for all of our young people,” Clinton told an audience at Columbus State Community College.
“They’ll bear the extra burden for the loss of their father and husband. But certainly, we hope for every young person in American today the opportunity to live up to his or her God given potential,” she said.
Clinton said she visited the officer’s widow at the hospital “to thank her for her husband’s service and certainly to express my deep condolences about her loss and the loss to her family.”
Journalists who have covered presidential campaigns or traveled with presidents are accustomed to seeing motorcycle police flying at tremendous speed down the highway ahead of the motorcade in order to close off ramps from entering traffic so that the “bubble” the candidates or presidents travel in can precede without interference from hotel to event to airport.
But today’s accident is another reminder of how everyday, every minute really, police and Secret Service agents endanger themselves to protect our presidents and would-be commanders-in-chief from harm.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the dead police officer, his family and colleagues.
The officer’s death is lamentably all too familiar. Just last August, a motorcycle officer escorting President Bush’s motorcade in New Mexico was killed during an accident.
And in November 2006, another officer who had an accident while escorting Bush’s motorcade in Hawaii died from injuries. Here’s Mark Silva’s excellent post on those tragic events.
(AP Photo/The Morning News, Irwin Thompson)