A Louisiana police officer escorting a funeral procession on his motorcycle was killed in a collision on Friday, less than a year after surviving being shot in the face.
Baton Rouge police officer Cpl. Shane Totty died Friday after a pickup truck plowed into the officer’s motorcycle during a funeral procession.
According to Baton Rouge’s The Advocate, the four-year police veteran survived being shot in the face after a mentally ill man fired several rounds into the windshield of Totty’s police car last February.
“He’s a fighter,” Baton Rouge police Chief Murphy Paul said Friday, recalling of visiting Totty in hospital last year. “He was a really bright young man. He had a bright future with the police department.”
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According to the newspaper, Totty recently became a new father after his fiancée gave birth to a baby girl. They were planning a wedding for later this year.
Retired Capt. Don Kelly told The Advocate that Totty lost sight in one eye for several months but fought hard to recover. When he returned, he asked to follow his dream and become a motorcycle officer.
“He loved motorcycles. That was his dream,” Kelly said. “He was doing what he loved… it’s such a sad irony after what happened and everything he went through — it’s just cruel,” Kelly said. “It’s unbelievable. It’s heartbreaking.”
Kelly said the entire department is taking the death of Totty very hard.
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“Life was good for him. He had survived this near-death experience and everything was positive and going his way,” Kelly told the newspaper. “How tragic that everything could be taken away in the blink of an eye. We’re all hurting.”
Police said the cause of the crash is under investigation.