CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- A Grand Forks native was killed in the line of duty after a semi hit the Colorado State trooper Friday near Denver.
Trooper Cody Donahue, an 11-year veteran of the Colorado State Patrol, was responding to an unrelated crash at 2 p.m. on Interstate 25 south of Castle Rock when he was hit and killed by a passing semi driven by Noe Gamez-Ruiz, 41, of Denver, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. Donahue was outside his car at the time of the crash.
The Sheriff’s Office has launched a criminal investigation, according to a news release, and Gamez-Ruiz, who was driving a commercial semi for Illinois-based U.S. Foods Inc., has been arrested and faces charges of careless driving resulting in death, a Class 1 misdemeanor, and failure to yield to the right of way of an emergency vehicle, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman said. Officers don’t believe drugs nor alcohol were a factor in the accident, but the crash remains under investigation and other charges are possible, the spokesman said.
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