A retired D.C. police detective was killed in a car accident by an off-duty Prince George’s County police officer who was under the influence of alcohol on Monday.
The crash happened Monday evening on northbound Route 301 in Brandywine, Maryland, near the intersection of Missouri Avenue. Carlton Herndon, 56, was driving a Nissan Maxima when he was hit by a car driven by 34-year-old Anthony Coleman, a Prince George’s County police officer.
Herndon died at the scene.
Maryland State Police said alcohol and speed appeared to be factors in the crash.
On Friday, outside the Sixth District police station in Northeast D.C., where Herndon last worked for the police department, his family and friends gathered to remember him as an exceptional father, son, brother and law enforcement officer.
The family placed the trunk lid of the black car that Herndon was driving next to a podium where they spoke to the press. They said it was all that was left of his car.
“His friends, the men, are calling me with tears. I can tell their hearts are breaking. I can hear it in their voice,” said Iris Toyer, Herndon’s mother.
Toyer was among about two dozen people, including Herndon’s wife and son, who attended the event at 5002 Hayes St. NE.
“He loved being a police officer,” said retired Sixth District Cmdr. Durriyyah Habeebullah. “He loved being a detective. He was a great man.”
“It’s so ironic that he was killed by an off-duty police officer,” Habeebullah added. “When I tell you (Herndon has) left a void in this community, it is everywhere … the people miss him.
“We believe that the other driver, a sworn police officer of the Prince George’s County Police Department, had not only been drinking but was traveling at a high rate of speed such that Carlton was killed upon impact,” Toyer said.
Coleman has been placed on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation.
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