BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. -- A Bradenton Beach Police Department officer who was seriously injured Saturday while assisting the Holmes Beach Police Department track down a fleeing suspect was hospitalized in fair condition Monday.
Officer Eric Hill is conscious and alert at Blake Medical Center and expected to recover from injuries he received in a head-on vehicle crash, said Sgt. Lenard Diaz of the Bradenton Beach Police Department.
Hill was injured when a woman from North Carolina who had allegedly stolen a car from a dealership in that state collided with Hill shortly after 3:45 p.m. on Holmes Boulevard in Holmes Beach, according to Holmes Beach Police Department report.
Hill was racing to join other law enforcement officers trying to apprehend the suspect at the time of the crash.
The suspect, Amanda L. Varner of Sanford, N.C., was able to flee from the officers pursuing her but when she saw Hill's vehicle with emergency lights activated coming toward her, she slammed into it head on, the report states.
Varner may not have known
that Hill was heading to meet with fellow officers and may have had no idea that she was coming toward him, the report indicates.
"Officer Hill is still at Blake hospital and should make a recovery, without a doubt," Diaz said. "Quite a few officers from our department have gone out to see him and more than a few law enforcement officers from around the area have called on his condition."
Varner was being held without bond at the Manatee County jail on charges of aggravated assault with a motor vehicle, grand theft of a motor vehicle and fleeing to elude with great bodily harm to a law enforcement officer, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office website.
"It hits close to home when one of yours gets hurt," Diaz said.
Copyright 2013 - The Bradenton Herald
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
