Flags are flying at half-staff across Nebraska to remember a veteran police officer who was killed Friday evening when his cruiser was struck by another vehicle after he made a traffic stop near Ceresco, about 20 miles north of Lincoln. 54-year old Ross Bartlett had been a member of the Ceresco Police Department since 2017 while also acting since then as an investigator for the Nebraska Dept of Correctional Services. He also served with the Ceresco Volunteer Fire Department The Nebraska State Patrol says Officer Bartlett had stopped a car on Hwy 77 about a mile south of Ceresco around 7:30 Friday night. Both vehicles were parked on the shoulder with Bartlett and the other driver both in their vehicles, when a pickup truck rear-ended the police cruiser, pushing it into the stopped car. First responders arrived a few minutes later and found bystanders attempting to help all those involved in the crash. Bartlett flown to a hospital in Lincoln, where he was pronounced dead. The 27-year old Lincoln man driving the car suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries while the driver of the pickup, a 49-year-old man from the city of Crete, was not seriously hurt, but could face a variety of charges. Bartlett’s 30-year law enforcement career began as an officer with the Valentine Police Department, then the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, Madison Police Department, Madison County Sheriff’s Office and Newman Grove Police Department.
Flags are Flying at Half-Staff Across Nebraska to Remember a Veteran Police Officer
