Jamaican born US officer buried on Tuesday
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Adrian Morris, a Prince George’s County police officer who died last week during a highway chase, was buried on Tuesday morning in Lakemont Memorial Gardens, at 900 W Central Avenue in Davidsonville, Maryland in the United States.
Jamaican born, Morris, 23, was pursuing suspects in an attempted break-in when his cruiser ran off Interstate 95 and crashed into a ravine on August 20 after he lost control of the vehicle.
Morris was ejected from the car and received multiple head injuries.
The funeral procession, attended by hundreds of mourners, began with a motorcade from the funeral home in Beltsville to the nearby police station.
He had been a county police officer for two-and-a-half years and was a former member of the Prince George’s Police Explorers, a programme that introduces teens to police work.
Morris grew up in Kingston, Jamaica and attended Mona Heights Primary School in St Andrew, before moving on to Excelsior High School.
He migrated to Maryland, USA, where he graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in 2007 and became a US citizen in 2009.
The Washington Post reported that about noon on August 20, Morris and Officer Michael Risher went to a Shell gas station on Sandy Spring Road in the Laurel area to investigate a report that two men in an Acura had been trying to get into customers’ cars.
A station manager saw the Acura return and the officers got into their cruiser, with Morris driving, and tried to catch it.
A chase ensued on Interstate 95, and the police car left the road and flipped several times, killing Morris. Risher was treated at a hospital and released.
According to a Washington Post report the day after the crash, Kenneth Clark Mitchell Jr, 24, was arrested. Two days later, after an intensive search, Kevon Darnell Neal, 23, of Fort Washington turned himself in.
Both were charged with felony theft for allegedly riding in a stolen car during the chase. Authorities say they are considering adding vehicular manslaughter charges.