Police presence on Grant/Andrews Highway explained

ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- Officers with the Odessa Police Department were out in full force Tuesday to support a fellow member of law enforcement.

According to OPD, officers have lined Grant and Andrews Highway, down to Yukon road, to help escort a Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to Schlemeyer Field.

The trooper was injured early Tuesday morning in a crash in Ector County. According to Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis, between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. on September 17, ECSO was assisting DPS with traffic control on a crash in the westbound lanes of Highway 302, just east of Notrees. ESCO Deputy Justin Toombs angled his unit, with emergency lights activated, to divert traffic to the inside lane.

Griffis said a driver in a Cadillac struck Deputy Toombs’ unit, which injured a DPS trooper. Deputy Toombs, the DPS trooper, and the driver of the Cadillac were all taken by ambulance to the Emergency Room at Medical Center Hospital.

Deputy Toombs is said to be stable, but the Winkler County Sheriff’s Office said the trooper involved received life threatening injuries in the crash.

OPD said the trooper, who has not been publicly identified, has been taken by ambulance to the airfield off Yukon Road and will soon be flown to Lubbock for continued medical care.

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