(Cherokee)– An off-duty Cherokee police officer has been charged with a serious misdemeanor of leaving the scene of an injury accident. The Iowa State Patrol says 52-year-old Michael McGee of Cherokee was driving a pickup truck in Cherokee, when he allegedly struck a six-year-old female in the crosswalk.
The patrol says McGee fled the scene and failed to return after the vehicle and driver had been identified.
The girl was taken to Cherokee Regional Medical Center with injuries that include a concussion.
An affidavit filed in Cherokee County Court says McGee didn’t believe he hit anyone and continued north to the city garage. There, the affidavit says he unloaded several children’s swimming pools, which were stacked in his truck bed, into a city dumpster. The affidavit says McGee also put “potentially identifying items” into the dumpster, as well. McGee told investigators when he heard the ambulance dispatched to the accident scene he panicked, and returned his vehicle home.
