CLEVELAND: A man has been arrested and is expected to be charged in the hit-and-run death of a Cleveland patrolman on an interstate, Cleveland police said Tuesday.
The 44-year-old man was arrested in Lorain hours after Patrolman David Fahey was struck about 6 a.m. Tuesday in westbound lanes of Interstate 90 in Cleveland.
Fahey, 39, was setting down road flares at the time because of two previous crashes on the freeway. Rocky River firefighters and police had responded to a single-car crash when a van ran into a firetruck, killing the van’s driver and hospitalizing a passenger.
A police spokeswoman said prosecutors will be consulted about possible charges in the officer’s death, including aggravated vehicular homicide.
Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Steve Loomis said officers took Fahey’s handcuffs from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office to use on the suspect, who surrendered at gunpoint after a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent spotted his car in the driveway of a home. Officers from several agencies had searched for the white Toyota Camry that struck Fahey.
Fahey joined the Cleveland Police Department in July 2014. His stepfather is a retired Cleveland police lieutenant, his brother is a Cleveland officer and his mother once worked for the department, Loomis said. Fahey was a Navy veteran who spent several years as a paramedic before joining the police department, Loomis said.
Fahey is the first Cleveland officer to die in the line of duty since 2008.
A state trooper was struck and killed on I-90 last year near where Fahey was killed.