Wearing a seatbelt may have saved this officer a world of hurt.
FULLERTON - Officer Joshua Earnest spent Wednesday night in a Fullerton living room comforting the father of a missing 13-year-old girl. Hours later, 23-year-old Earnest was in critical condition, thrown from his squad car after being broadsided by an SUV, authorities said.
The 26-year-old driver whose car collided with Earnest's and who died in the crash had just waved goodbye to a friend a block away. She had run a red light, authorities and witnesses said.
Rebecca Cooper’s red 2003 Chevy Trailblazer slammed into Earnest’s patrol car at Commonwealth Avenue and Euclid Street about 2:45 a.m. Thursday, sending bumpers, glass and traffic light parts flying across the intersection.
The walk signal landed in the waiting area of a corner carwash. The police siren was ripped from the squad car. Earnest and Cooper, who were not wearing seat belts, were ejected, authorities said.
Commonwealth and Euclid were shut down for more than 15 hours Thursday while investigators from the California Highway Patrol tried to piece together what happened. CHP officers are used to investigate major crashes involving local police officers.
Korea Times deliveryman Young Pak said he was stopped at the red light at Commonwealth when he saw the Trailblazer speed past him, driving through the red light and slamming into Earnest’s driver’s-side door as he drove west on Commonwealth.
Cooper’s Trailblazer careened off the police car and plowed through a light standard, ripping the pole out of the cement. Cooper was thrown from the SUV. The Trailblazer flipped over, coming to a rest in the parking lot of a carwash. Cooper died in the parking lot, authorities said.
Pak waited for the light to change and rushed to help. A tow truck driver used the police radio to call in the crash. Earnest spent several hours in surgery at UCI Medical Center in Orange to repair a broken jaw, pelvis and several fractures, said Fullerton police Sgt. Linda King.
"Now you start thinking," Pak said. "That could have been me. That could have been anyone."
Fullerton Police Department does not require its officers to wear a seat belt. The exemption is also granted to firefighters, paramedics and other first responders. The issue has long been debated, with many officers arguing it could be a danger if they are not able to jump out of a car quickly to respond or if they simply forget to take it off while responding to an emergency.
Brian Ramirez, 25, who grew up with Cooper, a waitress at Anaheim’s Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., said they had been drinking at a family dinner party in Glendale. They visited a friend at the Bubba Gump in Long Beach. About 2 a.m. they came back to Fullerton to get Ramirez’s car. Cooper was headed south on Euclid, and Ramirez said he honked to say goodbye. Cooper then turned and headed north on Euclid before the collision.
It is unclear whether alcohol was a factor in the crash.
Thursday afternoon, Ramirez and a group of longtime friends laid red and white roses near the crash site. A handwritten sign read "We love you & you will be missed."
Cooper was the "text queen," Ramirez said. The girl who had about "1,000 names in her phone," and talked to as many people as she could.
"Everyone, just everyone loved her," Ramirez said. Her truck was red – her favorite color. She wore the number eight when she played roller hockey and she coached.
Cooper loved to drive and would change her mind – in a split second, Ramirez said. And she made an impression. The longtime waitress could hardly go anywhere in Orange County without someone asking her if she had served them at a restaurant somewhere, friend Amy Alcorn said.
It was Earnest who showed up with ideas and a shoulder to cry on when James Cabrera called Fullerton police Wednesday night. Cabrera’s daughter Danielle disappeared. Minutes before the crash, Earnest had called the panicked father to see if Danielle had turned up.
"I'm just heartbroken that this guy was out looking for my little girl and this happened," said Cabrera, 44. "He was just doing his job."
If alcohol was a contributing factor, at least it was the driver and not the cop.
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