SCOTTSDALE β An Arizona police officer is dead after being struck by a vehicle while conducting a traffic stop on a Phoenix-area freeway.
Officials said Salt River Police Department Officer Clayton Townsend was struck late Tuesday along the Loop 101 freeway while approaching a vehicle he had pulled over. The vehicle that struck Townsend then struck the one Townsend pulled over.
Salt River Police Chief Karl Auerbach called Townsend compassionate and "truly a guardian of the people."
Townsend was married and had a 10-month-old child. He had served five years on the Salt River Police Department, an agency of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety said the driver of the vehicle that struck Townsend was taken to a hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries.
