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Police officer killed, sheriff’s deputy injured in separate hit-and-runs

Posted at 2:55 PM, Oct 29, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-29 16:59:49-04

By Azadeh Ansari

CNN

(CNN) — Hit-and-run drivers struck two law enforcement officers in separate states within a few hours of each other, killing one of them and seriously injuring another, officials said.

Officer Myron Jarrett, an eight-year veteran of the Detroit police force, was in the midst of a late-night traffic investigation Friday on the city’s west side when he was killed by a Dodge truck “traveling at a high rate of speed,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig told CNN affiliate WDIV.

Jarrett was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“Our prayers and condolences go out to the Jarrett, 12th Precinct, and the entire Detroit Police Department (DPD) family on the tragic loss of one of Detroit’s finest, police Officer Myron Jarrett,” Craig posted Saturday on Facebook.

Authorities were searching for the suspect, whom they identified as “local resident” Steven Patrick Guzina, 54.

In the line of duty

In Polk County, Florida, south of Orlando, Deputy Sheriff Adam Pennell was injured by a hit-and-run driver as he helped a female driver on the side of a highway. The woman was killed.

Pennell had responded to a call from 33-year-old Jessica Enchautegui-Otero, who had veered off the roadway and hit a tree shortly after midnight, police said.

While waiting for help to arrive, she stood in the grass median on the eastbound side of highway SR 60, near Tiger Lake, police said.

When Pennell spotted Enchautegui-Otero, he pulled his patrol car to the inside lane of the highway, activated his emergency lights and got out of the car to talk to her, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Moments after Pennell, 25, called EMS, a vehicle heading westbound on SR 60 entered the median and struck them both, police said.

Enchautegui-Otero, of Tampa, was killed and Pennell was seriously injured.

The sheriff’s office is offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the driver’s arrest. They say the driver’s vehicle will have front-end damage.

CNN’s Laura Ly, Keith Allen and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.

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