The family of late Reverend Tommie Jackson are demanding answers for the death of the beloved minister, who was struck and killed on the 26th of July by a Stamford police officer driving a patrol car.
The Stamford Police Department in a statement, said that Officer Zachary Lockwood was responding to a call while driving a marked patrol vehicle when he struck 69-year-old Jackson, who was attempting to cross the street after getting mail from his mailbox.
Lockwood performed CPR on Jackson until medics arrived, but Jackson succumbed to his injuries at Stamford Hospital.
The police said Lockwood, who joined the department in April 2022, is on administrative leave while the Connecticut State Police investigates the incident. Accident reconstruction experts working for the Pastor’s family are trying to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened.
“Pastor Tommie Jackson was such a beacon of light for so many in the Stamford community, for [the] past 25 plus years,” the police statement read. “His steadfast commitment to serve those under the guidance of his pastorate, extended far and wide. The void that has been left by his untimely passing will be difficult to fill; only the passage of time will bring comfort and healing.”
Jackson was a pastor at Rehoboth Fellowship Church and Faith Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, as well as Stamford’s assistant director of the Urban Redevelopment Commission.
His wife, Dorye Jackson, is one of five members of the Stamford Police Commission, an advisory board overseeing the police department. Family members and congregants held a memorial service on Sunday (July 30) for the beloved pastor by the water at Boccuzzi Park in Stamford.