TAMPA, Fla. — Master Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen's visitation and funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.

The visitation will take place at 11 a.m. at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz.

The service will include full honors, including a 21-gun salute, a playing of Taps, a riderless horse, a flyover, a flag-folder presentation and a last radio call.

Attendees are asked to wear formal, dark colored clothing and a mask.

The committal service will follow at 2:30 p.m. at Florida National Cemetery.

You can get more information or leave a message for Madsen's family here.


ORIGINAL STORY:

A Tampa police officer was killed early Tuesday in a wrong-way traffic crash.

Master Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen, a 45-year-old highly decorated officer who was a 16-year veteran of the department, was killed while responding to calls about a wrong-way driver on Interstate 275.


What You Need To Know

  • TPD officer Jesse Madsen, 45, killed in wrong-way crash  

  • TPD Chief Brian Dugan said crash happened at 1 a.m. Tuesday on I-275 near Hillsborough Avenue  

  • Madsen, a 16-year TPD veteran,  was a husband, father of 3 and a US Marine

According to Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan, the crash happened in the northbound lanes just before 1 a.m. on I-275 near Hillsborough Avenue.

Interstate 275 was closed for several hours in both directions between E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and E. Sligh Ave.

Tampa Police began receiving calls at 1 a.m. about a white sedan driving southbound in the northbound lanes of I-275 at a high rate of speed and swerving through the lanes.

Dugan said 25-year-old Joshua Daniel Montague of Golden, Colorado was driving his rental car sedan south in the northbound lanes.

Within a minute of the original call, the vehicle crashed into Officer Madsen's police vehicle between the Hillsborough and Sligh Avenue exits. 

The impact killed both Ofc. Madsen and Montague. A police escort accompanied Ofc. Madsen's body to the medical examiner's office early Tuesday.

Tampa Police began receiving calls at 1 a.m. about a white sedan driving southbound in the northbound lanes of I-275 . Within a minute of the original call, the vehicle crashed into Officer Madsen's police vehicle between the Hillsborough and Sligh Avenue exits. (Spectrum News image)

Madsen was a husband and father of three and a Marine. He was a 7-time Lifesaving Award-winner. He is the 32nd Tampa police officer to die in the line of duty.

"This a tragedy," Dugan said. "Our community has been rocked by these wrong-way drivers. And it's just a complete tragedy a husband and father of three is now gone."

The crash remains under investigation.  

Dugan said the city of Tampa will have a 7-day period of mourning.

Speaking Tuesday morning, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, the city's former police chief, said the community will honor Madsen by lighting up city hall and the donwtown bridges in blue.

"This is a very difficult day for our entire community," Castor said. "And specifically for the members of the Tampa Police Department. When we lose an officer, it affects the entire community but specifically the men and women in uniform."

IF YOU'D LIKE TO HELP OFFICER MADSEN'S FAMILY

The Tampa Police foundation (Rise Tampa) has set up ways to officially donate to Officer Madsen's family. 100% of the donations
will be provided directly to the family.

Ways to Donate

In Person: Monetary donations can be submitted to any Bank of Tampa branch in MPO Madsen's name.

By Mail: Checks or money orders can be sent to:
RISE Tampa
i/c/o MPO Madsen
PO Box 172816
Tampa, FL 33672

Online: www.risetampa.org/officermadsen

Venmo: @risetampa

PayPal: paypal.me/risetampa