Officer Jason Eckes

Birmingham Police Department



Visitation:
Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 5pm-8pm
John-Ridouts, Valley Chapel
1802 Oxmoor Road
Homewood, AL 35209

Funeral:
Monday, April 25, 2005 - 4pm
Our Lady of Sorrows
1728 Oxmoor Road
Homewood, AL 35209

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An off-duty Birmingham police officer riding his bicycle was struck and killed by a driver fleeing a police chase just minutes earlier, authorities said.

Officer Jason Eckes, 32, of Homewood, was struck about 10:13 p.m. and taken to a hospital, Deputy Police Chief Bob Copus said. He was hit after police lost sight of the truck they chased southward from Birmingham along I-65.

Police Chief Annetta Nunn said the driver had no way of knowing the man he hit was a police officer.

"He was just a guy out riding his bike," said Nunn, adding that she's confident the damage on the truck will proved that it's the same one from the chase.

"We should be able to tie it together, she said.

During the chase a woman, who either jumped or was thrown from the truck, landed at the Sixth Avenue South exit ramp along the interstate, officers said. She was treated at a hospital and later questioned by Homewood police.

Eckes worked the evening shift at the West Precinct, which lost three police officers — Carlos Owen, Harley Chisholm III and Robert Charles Bennett — in June when they were shot to death while serving a warrant at a reputed drug den.

"It's surreal, like a dream you hope you will wake up from," precinct commander Capt. Hollis Crutchfield told the Birmingham News.

This story for EMS Action was put together from articles in the Birmingham News