Officer Shawn Newlin Down (Georgia)
A Clayton County police officer died Sunday afternoon, four days after he was critically injured while escorting a funeral procession off-duty.
Officer Shawn Newlin, 25, never recovered from a coma following the wreck on Tara Boulevard near Sherwood Drive on Wednesday afternoon. He rear-ended a car with his motorcycle, was thrown off and landed on his head.
"It just makes you realize how fragile life is," Clayton police Maj. Tim Robinson said Sunday.
Newlin joined the Clayton Police Department in June, and had been working as a patrolman.
On Wednesday, Newlin was working a second job for a company that provides police escorts for funerals. He was wearing his police uniform and was riding a company-provided motorcycle.
As he headed north on Tara Boulevard to catch up with the funeral procession, Newlin ran into the back of a Chevrolet Cavalier. The woman and children in the car were not hurt.
Newlin was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in critical condition. He leaves behind a wife and 2-year-old daughter. Friends and family members set up a fund, the Officer Newlin Support Fund, at Heritage Bank.
Newlin's death is the second one in a week of an off-duty police officer.
On Friday, Powder Springs police Officer Billy Andrew Morgan was killed when his Cadillac Escalade, going the wrong way on the Downtown Connector in Atlanta, collided with an ambulance.
Terrible story. May he RIP :(
