2 Roseville Police Cars Involved In Accident
ROSEVILLE, Minn. (WCCO) -- A police officer suffered non-life threatening injuries when two Roseville squad cars collided on their way to a bank robbery.
The accident happened around 12:15 p.m. near County Road B2 and Fairview. One of the cars was a marked squad, the other an unmarked car. Both were responding to a robbery at InterBank near the area where the collision occurred.
"From what we can tell right now, both squads were westbound on B2, one of them apparently turned in front of the other one, causing the subsequent collision and rollover," said Capt. Matt Langer. "It's all under investigation but it is likely the unmarked car is the one that turned in front of the marked car."
One of the officers had to be extricated from his marked squad car, which rolled over in the accident. He has been identified as Sgt. Greg Levendoski, a 23-year veteran of the Roseville Police Department. Levendoski was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center where he is in satisfactory condition and is expected to be released by Thursday.
The other officer, who was driving the unmarked vehicle, was evaluated on the scene and released. He has been identified as Lt. Lorne Rosand, a 27-year veteran of the Roseville Police Department.
Both squads are severely damaged and are considered a total loss.
"Doesn't appear to be any major injuries at all," said Randy Gustavson, of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.
It appears both officers were wearing seat belts.
"Unfortunately sometimes decisions get made that result in crashes and that's what happened today," Langer said. "Police work is complicated and driving is not an easy task. Put yourself in their shoes, responding to a bank robbery."
The bank robbers did get away and the FBI is investigating whether it was connected to the robbery in St. Paul earlier in the day.
