Beaumont police officer dies, another injured after being hit by wrong-way driver

BEAUMONT, Texas (KXAN) — A 23-year-old Beaumont police officer died and another officer was injured in a head-on crash with a wrong-way driver early Sunday morning.

Beaumont Police said Officer Sheena Yarbrough-Powell, who has been with the department for almost two years, died, and her partner was severely injured.

“It’s a sad day for The Beaumont Police Department and the community that our Officers proudly serve,” a Facebook post written by Police Chief James Singletary on the department’s page said.

The officers were traveling on Cardinal Drive near the Highway 347 overpass when they were struck by a wrong-way driver around 2:30 a.m.

Charley Wilkison, executive director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, wrote in a tweet that the person who hit them was driving while intoxicated.

The other officer who was injured got surgery and has since been released from the hospital. “He has a long road to recovery ahead of him but we will be with him every step of the way,” the chief’s statement went on to say.

Yarbrough-Powell was hired as a police cadet on Aug. 13, 2018, and was sworn in as an officer on Dec. 20 that same year. She had been married for 10 months.

I would like to say thank you to the State Troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety for responding and leading the investigation of the crash. I would also like the thank the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Lamar P.D. for stepping in and answering our calls for service while most of our Officers were on the scene of the crash. Also, I want to ask our community to not only keep Sheena’s family and the police department in your prayers but Beaumont EMS and Fire Department. Police, Fire and EMS go hand-in-hand. We are all first responders and our paths cross multiple times throughout our respective shifts. So this loss is hard for them too. We have already started to feel the outpouring of support from the community and it means more than you know. 

-Beaumont Police Chief James Singletary

Tributes from law enforcement and officers in Central Texas poured out in support of both officers.