A St. Tammany Parish (Louisiana) Sheriff’s sergeant was killed early Sunday (March 23) morning when he was struck by a vehicle driven by a pursued suspect.

Sgt. Grant Candies, 37, was attempting to deploy spike strips on Interstate 10 to end the pursuit when he was killed. “The perpetrator, fleeing from a pursuit, struck him, taking the life of a husband, a father, a Marine, a mentor, and a true leader among his peers,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook statement.

Candies was a married father of two children, the STPSO said. His own father served in the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office for more than 30 years, Fox 8 reports.

The STPSO said the pursuit began when a deputy attempted to stop a vehicle, which instead “fled at a high rate of speed.”

“He was going at least 85, 90 mph,” one witness recalled. “He kept swerving. I was like, ‘what is going on?’”

The fleeing vehicle was occupied by five people, who all were arrested after crashing into a New Orleans Police Department unit on Interstate 10 in New Orleans East around 12:30 a.m.

An NOPD officer was injured in the crash. He was treated and released at a local hospital. The occupants of the suspects’ car -- all juveniles, according to the NOPD -- also were taken for hospital treatment for injuries sustained in the crash. The NOPD described their conditions as stable.