SPD mourns officer who dies in car crash
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - A Savannah Police officer died in a car crash while driving home from work overnight.
The crash is under investigation by the Georgia State Patrol. Meanwhile, the officer was honored Monday afternoon with a memorial procession.
It was silent except for the sound of rain as the Savannah Police Department, medical staff at Memorial Health, and several Aldermen honored Officer Reginald Brannan.
Brannan was heading home after work around midnight last night when his car collided with a tractor trailer on Highway 21 in Garden City.
“It’s shocking. Anybody that loses their life in the city under any circumstances, it’s shocking to us. But when it’s an officer, worked the shift, and lost his life just that easily, it’s heart wrenching for us,” Alderman Detric Leggett said.
Which is what these participants said made this procession so important. Alderman Nick Palumbo was also there and he says that officers put their lives on the line every day but you don’t expect to lose them like this.
“To see, especially an officer at the beginning of his career at 23 years old, to lose his life doing something we get the chance to do every day: going home. After a job well done, serving his community. In that final mile to lose his life, it’s just really tragic. So the least we could do is be here and pay our respects and certainly be there for the family,” Alderman Nick Palumbo said.
Speaking about the rest of the police department, these city leaders say at a time where the police department is understaffed and recruitment is difficult it makes it that much more important to support everyone else through tragedies like these.
“It’s so important every day to honor the memory of our heroes, and honor the officers we have with us here. To show our respect for them, which is why we continue to stand by our police department. But right now it’s to be there for the family and for our entire Savannah Police Department family, to know that we’re there for them too,” Palumbo said.
Brannan’s body was taken from Memorial Health to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Pooler for an autopsy.
The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the crash.
Copyright 2022 WTOC. All rights reserved.
