UPDATE: OPD officer remains hospitalized following double traffic crashes

Ocala Police Department image.

An Ocala Police Department (OPD) sergeant injured in a head-on collision with a driver who was fleeing after fatally striking a pedestrian the night of Aug. 26 in southwest Ocala has been released from intensive care but remains hospitalized.

According to an OPD press release, Sgt. Ron Malone was preparing to deploy stop sticks in the 3000 block of southeast Maricamp Road to halt Kristopher Kent Winningham, 44, who had “sped through” going eastbound on Southwest 17th Street at Pine Avenue where OPD was working a crash scene and struck an OPD vehicle and fatally struck a pedestrian.

Winningham continued east on the roadway, where he struck the vehicle Malone was driving, which was parked in the median in the vicinity of the HCA Florida Emergency (Urgent Care) on Southeast Maricamp Road, according to OPD reports, in a crash that “appeared to be intentional.”

Malone sustained serious injuries and was rushed to the hospital. Winningham also was taken to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

A press release issued Monday, Aug. 28, by OPD Public Information Officer Jeffrey Walczak indicated that Malone has a “long recovery journey ahead of him.”

“We wholeheartedly thank everyone for their thoughts and concerns for our officer and kindly ask that you continue to keep him and his family in your prayers during this challenging time,” Walczak stated.

The pedestrian victim was identified by OPD as James Thompson Jr., 26.