The family of an Edmond Police Department motorcycle officer killed in July is suing both the driver accused in the deadly wreck as well as his employer.
Sgt. C.J. Nelson, 38, died after the collision in which police say Jay Stephen Fite struck several vehicles stopped at a traffic light. Fite was driving a commercial vehicle belonging to Fite and Coontz Roofing. In the lawsuit, Nelson’s family is claiming negligence on the part of the roofing company and seeking more than $100,000 in damages for medical and burial expenses, grief, and loss, reports The Oklahomian.
In a probable cause affidavit, an Oklahoma City police officer wrote that he could smell alcohol on Fite's breath. Prosecutors filed a second-degree murder charge, or alternatively a first-degree manslaughter charge, against Fite.
Nelson was killed in the line of duty on what was his 13th anniversary with the Edmond Police Department.
