A police officer was critically injured Friday night when two law enforcement vehicles collided while escorting Vice President J.D. Vance’s motorcade in Maryville, Tennessee, local officials said. The crash, about 17 miles south of Knoxville, involved a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper and a Maryville Police Department motorcycle officer, according to CBS News.
Both were participating in the security detail for the vice president, who was in the area for a fundraiser at the Blackberry Farm resort in Walland.
Jason Pack, communications director for the Tennessee Department of Safety, said one of the ambulances assigned to the motorcade stopped immediately to provide medical aid. The city later confirmed on social media that the injured officer was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center and remains in critical condition, the Daily Caller reported.
Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp urged the community to support the officer and their family as they await updates. “We ask everyone to keep the officer, family, and the medical staff in your prayers,” he said in a statement.
Initial statements from state officials said the trooper involved in the crash had not been transported to a hospital. The City of Maryville later clarified that both the state trooper and the motorcycle officer were taken to the hospital for evaluation and treatment. Authorities have not released the trooper’s condition, and neither officer had been publicly identified as of publication time.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol has opened an investigation into the cause of the collision.
Katherine Pierce, the Secret Service’s resident agent in charge in Knoxville, said the agency is monitoring the situation and noted that the vice president’s motorcade continued without interruption.
“The safety and movement of our protectees were not impacted by this incident,” Pierce said.
Vance sharply criticized Democrats in an interview on Thursday night, accusing them of “inflicting pain on Americans all for nothing” after Congress voted to reopen the federal government following the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Speaking on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Vance said the 43-day shutdown — which ended after President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill on Wednesday — exposed how far the far-left wing of the Democratic Party was willing to go in its opposition to the administration.
“Here’s what the Democrats actually accomplished,” Vance said. “They caused a lot of stress for our troops. They made our air traffic controllers not get paid. They caused flight cancellations. They made families think they wouldn’t get their food benefits. All for literally nothing.”
Vance argued that Democrats’ real motivation was not fiscal policy, but political sabotage. “They don’t care if the troops don’t get paid. They don’t care if they shut down the airline industry,” he said. “They don’t care if they have to burn the entire country down in order to get Trump.”
The vice president said the final agreement that reopened the government was identical to one Democrats had rejected six weeks earlier.
“We could have struck this exact deal 45 days ago,” Vance said. “In fact, we met with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and said we will pass this exact deal. They said no.”
Vance said that moderate Democrats privately admitted their party’s strategy was “crazy” but were afraid to challenge the far-left faction.
“They all feel a little bit like they’re being held hostage,” he said, adding that several Democratic senators had worked quietly with the administration to broker the final deal.”
WATCH:
The legislation passed the House in a 222–209 vote, with six Democrats joining Republicans to support the measure. Trump called the deal “a clear message that we will never give in to extortion,” blaming Democrats for “trying to hold the country hostage.”
