PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — Police in Prince George's County are investigating after an off-duty Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer was hit by a car in Mitchellville, Maryland, Friday morning.
Officers with the Prince George's County Police Department responded to 10501 Martin Luther King Jr. Highway around 11 a.m. for a call of a critical pedestrian struck. When officers arrived they found a man had been hit by a car while leaving a grocery store. The man, later confirmed to be an off-duty MPD police officer, was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The victim has since been identified as Officer Kenneth Daniels during a press conference Friday with MPD Chief Robert Contee.
Police said officers and bystanders did CPR on Officer Daniels, but by the time he got to the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center, Chief Medical Officer Tom-meka Archinard, MD, said he was in critical but stable condition.
Daniels has served with the Metropolitan Police Department for 23 years.
Contee explained Officer Daniels was able to get help immediately following the collision thanks to a private citizen who flagged down officers nearby.
Chief Contee has known Officer Daniels since he was a teenager, they went to Spingarn High School in D.C. together.
"He's just a great individual," said Contee. "He has a brother in the police department, a niece in the police department, so he is very rooted in the police department, and it is very unfortunate for someone to be walking out of a shopping center... and be struck by a vehicle."
During the press conference, police claim the individual who they believe hit Daniels is cooperating with detectives.
Daniels was accompanied by his mother as he was admitted to the ICU.
The circumstances surrounding the crash are still under investigation. It is not clear what led to the crash.
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