WEYMOUTH - After they broke the news to his wife, his three young children, his parents, his two brothers, and his extended family on the force, officers draped black bunting over the entrance of police headquarters, a symbol of their collective grief.
For the first time in as long as anyone in the department could remember, a local police officer had died in the line of duty.
Officer Michael Davey, 34, had been directing traffic at a utility work site just before 10 a.m. yesterday on West Street near where it intersects Route 18 when a 79-year-old man driving a Mazda pickup truck ran a stop sign, struck the rear of another vehicle, and slammed into the officer, pinning him against a utility truck, authorities said.
Davey, an Iraq War veteran who had served on the police force for the past five years, after his service in the National Guard, was pronounced dead shortly afterward at South Shore Hospital, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said.
“Today is a profoundly sad day,’’ Keating said at a press conference. “We’ve lost truly a guardian of our safety. People like that are not commonplace.’’
Police charged the driver of the pickup, Ronald Gale of Weymouth, with motor vehicle homicide, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, speeding, and failure to stop for a stop sign. Gale’s license was suspended yesterday, after he was deemed “an immediate threat’’ to other drivers, Keating said.
“Let’s put it that way: I’m shaking, because since I was 16 years old, I’ve never had an accident,’’ Gale told WCVB-TV.read more