Investigation of crash in which Columbia police officer died may take weeks

Questions might remain unanswered for weeks about the wreck that killed a Columbia police officer and injured a University of South Carolina officer.

Details about which officer struck the other, where the vehicles hit each other and how fast they were traveling will wait until investigators with South Carolina Highway Patrol finish reviewing the crash, officials said.

“With those investigations, they’re very detailed,” Sherri Iacobelli, spokesperson for the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, said Monday. “Reconstruction of the collision can take sometimes months.”

However, an investigation such as this usually takes six to eight weeks to complete, she added.

Officer Stacy Case, 37, died late Saturday when her vehicle collided with another driven by USC Police Sgt. Allan Bolin.

Both officers were responding to a shooting near the intersection of Gervais and Lincoln streets in the Vista. The shooting was a suicide by a military service member stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said

Case was traveling west on College Street and Bolin was traveling north on Park Street when the pair collided in the intersection, Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said.

USC spokesman Wes Hickman said university officers frequently respond to off-campus incidents in order to “assist other agencies, particularly in matters of life safety in the immediate vicinity of campus.”

Hickman did not say if city police had requested help from USC officers, or if Bolin responded because she was nearby.

Gov. Nikki Haley directed that flags at all state buildings be flown half-staff Tuesday in memory of Case.

Meanwhile, City Council meetings Tuesday will be delayed for a memorial service for Case.

This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 4:43 PM.