Navajo Nation officer dies in accident

Posted by Donovan Quintero | Sep 1, 2016 | News |

WINDOW ROCK

Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
An officer surveys the scene of the accident that killed his colleague, Leander Frank, Tuesday.

Investigators from the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Navajo Nation Police closed off a stretch of Navajo Route 64 between Chinle and Tsaile, trying to piece together how a Navajo Nation patrol officer was killed Tuesday.

The Director of the Division of Public Safety with the Navajo Nation, Jesse Delmar, identified Navajo Nation patrol officer Leander Frank as the officer in the fatal accident.

Frank was instantly killed in a head-on collision while he was responding to a call in the Tsaile area. His police vehicle and another vehicle approached one another at milepost 15.5, which is about 10 miles west of Tsaile, when the fatal accident occurred.

Delmar added that Frank and the other vehicle tried avoiding each other, but collided head-on in the middle of the highway.

At the scene of the collision, a pickup truck that appears to be a Navajo police vehicle was seen overturned, and near it, was a white pickup truck with a flatbed attached to it. On the flatbed was a piece of heavy equipment that appeared to have slightly been displaced and leaning to its right.

Three Navajo police officers manned a roadblock about a mile west of the accident, instructing drivers that the highway would be closed for about 6-7 hours.

Navajo Nation Speaker of the Council LoRenzo Bates (Nenahnezad/Newcomb/San Juan/Tiis Tsoh Sikaad/Tse’Daa’Kaan/Upper Fruitland) released a statement expressing his condolences to Frank’s family.

“On behalf of the Navajo Nation Council, I send my sincerest condolences to the wife, children, family, and the Chinle Police District for the loss of Officer Frank, a protector and warrior of the Navajo Nation,” Bates wrote.