An El Cerrito police officer was killed in a large traffic collision on I-80 in San Pablo as he was returning home from work on Sunday morning.
The fatal traffic collision occurred at approximately 6:15 a.m. near San Pablo Dam Road. Officer Jerrick Bernstine, 26, was heading home on the freeway when the driver of a van in front of his vehicle lost control and collided with the center median. The van came to rest in the wrong direction, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Three vehicles, including the one Bernstine was in, struck the van, and he died at the scene. The other two drivers were hospitalized with major injuries.
No other information about the crash was available. The incident remains under investigation by the CHP.
Bernstine began his law enforcement career in 2019 as an academy recruit with the El Cerrito Police Department, police said. He became a police officer in 2020 after first working as an in-home caregiver.
"In his two years with the ECPD he was recognized as a model officer, combining a humble personality with a tenacious crime fighting spirit," police said in a statement on Monday.
"He was everything a person could hope for in a police officer, citizen, teammate, son, brother, and friend."
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