Illinois police officer killed after traffic stop
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An Illinois police officer died Sunday morning after he was seriously injured from a “scuffle” with another man during a traffic stop, police said.
The officer, identified as Jaimie Cox, was conducting a traffic stop about 1 a.m. Sunday when he called for extra assistance, Rockford police chief Dan O’Shea said in a news conference on Sunday. Rockford police initially wrote on Twitter that officers were responding to a “shooting involving an officer.”
O'Shea said Cox got into a “scuffle” with the man during the traffic stop that caused him to be “entangled in the suspect’s vehicle.”
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Cox fired his gun during the incident. The other man, identified as Eddie Patterson, was found dead inside his car from a “single vehicle crash,” according to O'Shea. The car crash was about two blocks away from the initial traffic stop.
The 30-year-old officer, who was with the department since December 2016, was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. He died later that morning.
The cause of death for Cox and Patterson have not been released.