Sunday, May 30, 1999
First police fatality puts Indiana county in mourning
BY CHARLES HOSKINSON
The Associated Press
FRANKLIN, Ind. — At one of the busiest times of the year for law enforcement, police officers in Johnson County are dealing with something they've never faced before — the loss of one of their own.
Tracy Lee Miles, a 40-year-old reserve sheriff's deputy who had volunteered part of his Memorial Day weekend for traffic patrol, was killed Friday night on Interstate 65 while helping a stranded motorist.
Deputy Miles is the first Johnson County police officer to die in the line of duty since the county was created in 1823, Sheriff J.D. Richards said.
Deputy Miles died instantly after being struck by a 19-foot motor home which swerved off the road.
The motor home's driver, Max Lamar Howell, 70, of Osteen, Fla., told investigators he realized he had struck something and stopped to see what it was. Mr. Howell said he had not seen Deputy Miles' patrol car stopped by the roadside, Sheriff Richards said.
The accident near Whiteland, about 15 miles south of Indianapolis, closed the highway's northbound lanes for several hours.
Mr. Howell has not been charged. Investigators are awaiting the results of drug and alcohol tests.
Deputy Miles, who worked full time as a pilot for American Trans Air airlines, had been a reserve deputy since 1987. He was married and had a 2-year-old son.
Colleagues were unsure how to deal with the death, said Danny Overley, a retired Indianapolis deputy police chief called in to counsel them.
“As much as we have a rough exterior, this is a very sensitive law enforcement community. They are very traumatized right now,” Mr. Overley said.
Sheriff Richards said Deputy Miles' death was especially hard coming at the start of the Memorial Day weekend, when many officers work long hours on the road.
“We'll do our grieving and we'll think about Tracy and we'll suck it up and do our jobs,” he said.
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