Jan. 02--A Savage police officer remains in critical condition after he lost control of his squad car on an icy road early Monday and hit a tree, authorities said.
The crash involving officer Frank Mackall occurred as he was responding to an emergency call shortly after 1 a.m. on Glendale Road near 137th Street, according to the State Patrol.
Mackall, 39, was taken to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, where he was still in critical condition Monday afternoon, said Savage Police Captain David Muelken.
"We're all just hoping and praying for a good outcome," said Savage Mayor Janet Williams, who said she knew him better than most of the officers in the department owing to a mutual interest in mental health issues.
Preliminary information indicates that Mackall, who was alone in the squad car, was on his way to assist three other officers several blocks away on a report of a prowler, Muelken said.
The news shot through town to such an extent that a few hours afterward, Williams was hearing in a coffee shop downtown that the person "who called in the report of a window peeper felt just awful" knowing what happened as a result.
The squad car was heading north on Glendale when it skidded on icy blacktop road and hit a tree off to the left, the patrol said.
Mackall, who is married with three children under the age of 15, lives in Shakopee. His wife, Lisabeth, is a speech pathologist.
He's one of three trained crisis intervention officers in Savage's department, equipped to deal with people with mental health issues, the mayor said, and in that capacity -- and given her own involvement -- she has seen him give a couple of talks.
"That type of training is really beneficial in de-escalating situations," she said, "whether it's domestic violence or mental health."
He's one of 32 on the Savage police force, where he has served since July 2008. He worked previously with the Woodbury Police Department for about six months. He moved to Minnesota from Ohio in 2004 and received a law enforcement degree from Metropolitan State University.
In an interview with the Savage Pacer newspaper soon after he was sworn in, Mackall said that "being a police officer is something I always wanted to do when I lived in Ohio. ... This is not your basic 9-to-5 job. There's always a new challenge, and that is what I was looking for."
Paul Walsh --612-673-4482
Star Tribune staff writer David Peterson also contributed to this report.
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