Duty Death: Anthony Raspa - [Upper Freehold]
End of Service: 30/05/2015
Philly.com
UPPER FREEHOLD, N.J. — A New Jersey State Trooper is dead following a car accident early Saturday morning.
According to police, 27-year-old trooper Anthony Raspa and his partner, 29-year-old Gene Hong, were patrolling eastbound Interstate 195 in Freehold at 12:48 a.m. Saturday when their Ford Crown Victoria struck a deer and ran off the road.
Raspa was taken to CentraState Hospital in Freehold where he was declared dead.
Hong was taken to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in Hamilton, where he was treated for minor injuries and is expected to be released soon.
Officials say this is the first line of duty death in the New Jersey State Police since James Hoopes died in 2012. The last traffic related death was State Trooper Marc Castellano, who was struck by a car and killed in June 2010 while outside of his vehicle on Interstate 195.
An outpouring of support and mourning flooded social media as residents reacted to the news on Facebook.
“So sad, I drive that road every day,” Rebecca Holford Jason said. “The deer make me nervous.”
“This young man was just starting his life and career,” wrote Maryann Davis-Perry. “Prayers to his family and his fellow Troopers.”
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