Witnesses said the police officer driving a patrol car that struck and killed a pedestrian last month tried to avoid the crash, but the pedestrian had jaywalked in front of her vehicle, records show.
On Nov. 10, Erika Munoz, an on-duty Tucson police officer, struck Pamela Lee Marshall, 64, in the 200 block of West Grant Road, near North 11th Avenue. Police said Marshall was standing on the raised median on Grant and stepped off the median into the lanes of travel when Munoz struck her.
Marshall was taken to Banner-University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead five days later.
According to police reports on the incident, Munoz said she was heading home from work and was going 30 mph when she noticed a lot of people on the side of the road. She said she was concerned that they may try and enter the road, so she paid attention to them.
As she continued east, Munoz said out of nowhere she saw Marshall in the road and maneuvered to try to avoid hitting her, but was unsuccessful, the police reports said. Munoz did not know where Marshall came from, nor had she seen her prior to that moment.
Munoz immediately stopped her vehicle, called over the radio for help and rendered aid to Marshall along with two off-duty nurses who arrived after the collision happened, police reports said. Munoz later told another TPD officer that she did everything within her ability to help Marshall until medics arrived.
One witness said he saw Marshall walk south from the center median on Grant onto oncoming eastbound traffic, police reports said. She then walked through the left turn lane and into the traffic lane just as Munoz was approaching in her vehicle.
It was the witnessesโ impression that Munoz did not see Marshall as she was struck, police reports said.
Another witness said there was nothing that Munoz could have done to prevent the crash, telling officers she saw Munoz stop after trying to swerve to avoid the pedestrian as other drivers had done, police reports said.
It was determined that Munoz was not impaired at the time of the crash.
The departmentโs Office of Professional Standards is conducting a separate administrative investigation into the actions of officer, which is standard, police said in a news release on the incident.
Close to 43,000 people died in a traffic crash in 2021, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's up from about 39,000 deaths in 2020.
