WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Members of the Rhode Island State Police are working to discover why a man made a U-turn on Route 95 early Monday morning, causing a head-on crash that killed himself and a Jamestown Police Officer.
Police said Officer Ryan Bourque was driving home from work when he was struck by a car driven by 23-year-old Dejae Pizarro, of Bedford, Massachusetts. Bourque had just finished his patrol shift in Jamestown.
Both Pizarro and Bourque died as a result of the crash.
Bourque graduated from Warwick’s Bishop Hendricken High School in 2009. Friends of Bourque said he was an avid hockey player and was originally from Coventry.
Those who knew him said he was a quiet, kind family man.
One of his neighbors told Eyewitness News his son was in the police academy with Bourque.
According to Jamestown Police Chief Edward Mello, Bourque was a 2015 graduate of the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy and has been on the force for one year. The crash happened on the one-year anniversary of his time on the force.
Though Bourque was a member of the Jamestown Police Department, members of the Coventry police force reached out through social media Monday to express their grief and offer their condolences:
Friends of Bourque told Eyewitness News he was incredibly hardworking and always wanted to be a police officer.
State police said the department’s Accident Reconstruction and Forensic Services Units are assisting in the investigation.
