UPDATE: Eupora Police Officer Killed In Line Of Duty

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EUPORA, Miss. – (WCBI)Dozens of law enforcement agencies, medics and helicopters raced towards Highway 82 east in Eupora after a high-speed chase ends in tragedy. Eupora police officer,Keith Crenshaw, 52, died after 3 suspects traveling in a black Nissan ran him over. Crenshaw was attempting to slow the chase by setting up a spike strip along the highway.

“The officer was moving away from the spike strip. The driver of the suspect car sees the spike strip and makes an evasive maneuver to avid the spike strip. He avoids the spike strip, maneuvers the same direction in which the officer runs and tragically the officer was struck by the suspect vehicle and killed,” said Mississippi Highway Patrol Sgt. Criss Turnipseed.

The driver then lost control.

“The vehicle continued eastbound on the median and collides right into a light pole, one of the occupants of the vehicle was ejected from the vehicle. That occupant was killed from the ejection. The two other occupants inside the vehicle were seriously injured. One was air lifted from the scene. The other one was taken away in an ambulance,” said Sgt. Turnipseed.

The situation early Wednesday morning in Eupora when authorities got a call about an attempted robbery at CB & S bank.

“The suspect tried to follow an employee in but the employees were alerted by their presence and were able to lock their doors behind them. As a result they did not get in the bank. They traveled to Grenada and participated in some type of activity over there. They had a BOLO out for their Black Nissan. They were spotted in Montgomery County by Highway Patrol,” said Eupora Mayor Dan Burchfield.

Investigators say the suspect then returned to Webster County where the accident happened. Authorities re-directed traffic for several hours as they cleared the scene. Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is now handling the case. Law enforcement officials say Crenshaw’s death is a major blow.

” I heard he was a hard worker. He was a big family man. And that loss is going to be felt deeply here in the Webster County community and across the State. He was a law enforcement officer, he was a brother and we don’t like to lose our brothers,” said Sgt. Turnipseed.

No word on the condition of the suspects injured.