DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Des Moines Police Officers Burial Association has established memorial funds for the families of two officers killed in a traffic crash on Interstate 80.
The funds were opened at the Des Moines Police Officers Credit Union on behalf of Officers Carlos Puente-Morales and Susan Farrell.
The Des Moines Police Department has become a place for people to gather and pray, reports WHO. Community members are leaving messages on the department's Facebook page.
The officers died after their police SUV was hit head-on by another vehicle traveling the wrong way on I-80 west of Des Moines. They had been on the job less than six months.
The jail inmate they were transporting, 32-year-old Tosha Nicole Hyatt, was also killed. Hyatt was being taken early Saturday from Council Bluffs to Des Moines.
"Police departments by nature are very close knitted, and to have something like this happen unexpectedly, really is hard to grasp. I think in the days, weeks and months to come, the grieving process is not going to take over night. It’s going to take some time," said Galetich-Christofferson, Chapter Director of Iowa C.O.P.S., to WHO.
The department is still planning a community vigil in the near future.
Police say both officers and the driver of the other vehicle were wearing seat belts, but they don't know if Hyatt was.
