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26
Nov 2010
Texas Cop Traveling to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving Killed While Assisting Stranded Motorist

EUFAULA, Okla. -- An off-duty Texas police officer's last act was to push a man out of danger as a car sped toward them Tuesday in McIntosh County, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported.

Patrick Sirois, 50, a Nolanville, Texas reserve officer and full-time Fort Hood civilian police officer, was headed to Wagoner to be with his family for Thanksgiving when a wreck took his life, patrol Lt. George Brown said.

Sirois had stopped for a pickup that had been in a wreck in the southbound lanes of U.S. 69 a mile north of Eufaula about 7:50 p.m. Tuesday, the patrol reported.

"He (Sirois) was in his own private car," Brown said. "And he was just stopping to do the right thing. The last thing he did was push someone out of the way."

A car driven by Beonce Rose'ann Hobson, 17, of Checotah, approached and Sirois, wearing a reflective traffic vest with a badge and firearm visible, could see the car was going too fast to stop in time, Brown said, so he pushed the motorist out of harm's way.

Hobson's car knocked the pickup into Sirois, pinning him against the guardrail. Sirois was pronounced dead at a Eufaula hospital.

The man he saved from injury was James Snowden Jr., 28, of McAlester.

"He was being selfless like he always has been," said Christopher Bahnemann, a Fort Hood police officer.

Hobson and her passenger, Jeffrey Ray Sullivan, 25, of Muskogee, were not injured, the patrol reported. Both were wearing seat belts.

Patrol troopers escorted law officers from Nolanville on Wednesday as they came to take Sirois' body back to Texas, Brown said.

Nolanville Police Chief Lester Holsey Jr. said Sirois was "always one to help in any situation."

"Our prayers and thoughts go out to his family and many friends. This department lost not only a very good officer but a friend who was willing to help anyone, anytime," Holsey said.

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