Detroit Police Mourn Loss Of Officer Weathers, A 25-Year-Old Who Played With Kids In The Streets

(WWJ) Another police officer has died on the job in Detroit.

Police Chief James Craig says Officer Darren Weathers, 25, was on a training mission when he got into an accident on Michigan Avenue at Clark Street. Weathers died at the hospital after another vehicle, with two or three people inside, struck his car, forcing it into a pylon.

Craig says it's a difficult loss coming so soon after the death of Glenn Doss and the wounding of three officers yesterday.

A rundown of injuries at death among Detroit's finest shows that Doss, who was also 25, was shot Jan. 24 while responding to a domestic violence call, and died later in the hospital. Three more officers were injured when a 49-year-old man barricaded himself inside a house and opened fire, holding off police for more than 16 hours before he was found inside the house, dead in an apparent suicide, and with a deceased female victim.

Overall, three women were killed in the incident, and three cops were shot. All their injuries were non-life threatening.

Safe to say, it's a tough week for Detroit's men and women in blue.

"I think I speak for our entire team, which has been so supportive, (in saying) we continue to serve the city," Craig said.

The crash is under investigation. Craig says the people in the other car suffered "either no, or minor, injuries."

"He was struck by a vehicle, the vehicle was significantly damaged, he was transported here to Henry Ford, where they did everything they possibly could do to save his life, unfortunately he succumbed to his injuries," Craig said.

Weathers job was to conduct investigations into alleged dirty cops. Throughout this short career, he managed to make an impact in other areas -- He made a viral video of himself taking time out to play with Detroit kids, and he rescued his partner from a shooting. Weathers returned fire and dragged his partner to safety when his partner was shot in the head in April. The partner remains in rehabilitation.

Mark Diaz, president of the Detroit Police Officers Association, described Weathers to freep.com as "one of the sharpest, most caring and wonderful human beings I have ever met."

He had been on the force for about a year-and-a-half and had a 3-year-old daughter, who was visiting him from out of the area when he was killed. His nickname was "Lucky."