For the first time in nearly 30 years, a Des Moines police officer was killed while on duty over the weekend. Officer Sean Wissink was driving early Sunday morning from his home in Grimes to Des Moines in a city-owned SUV, when he swerved to miss a deer, hit a guard rail and rolled down an embankment.

Wissink, a ten-year veteran of the Des Moines P.D., was helicoptered to a hospital, where he later died. He was headed for the Des Moines airport to catch a plane to New Mexico to take part in an anti-terrorism training program. Wissink was an Ankeny native, was married and had two children. The last Des Moines policeman killed on duty was shot to death in August of 1977.

 

Audio Radio Iowa’s Matt Kelley report: :32 MP3