A police detective and a suspect he was trying to stop have both died in a head-on collision of their vehicles near St. Louis, authorities said.
The crash happened Wednesday afternoon after officers with the St. Louis County sheriff's department’s drug unit tried to stop a car that had been reported stolen, police said. The car fled, and police gave chase.
An unmarked police vehicle driven by Detective Antonio Valentine responded and was traveling eastbound toward the chase when the suspect’s speeding westbound car crossed the centerline and collided with Valentine’s vehicle in Bellefontaine Neighbors, a suburb just north of St. Louis, officials said.
Both Valentine and the suspect were rushed to a hospital, where they died. Another detective who had been riding with Valentine also was injured and was treated and released from a hospital, police said.
Police did not immediately release the name of the male suspect who died.
Valentine, 42, had been with the department since 2007 and had recently been assigned to the Bureau of Drug Enforcement, police said. He was an Army combat veteran of Iraq and had recently retired from the Air Force Reserve.
