An Arkansas police officer died Sunday after exhibiting “medical distress” during a training exercise just a few weeks after he joined the department.
Vincent Parks, a 38-year-old member of the Jonesboro Police Department, was training at the Central Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy in North Little Rock when he began feeling ill, according to officials.
Academy instructors gave Parks oxygen and called an ambulance. The officer was able to walk to the vehicle himself, but “was stricken by cardiac arrest almost immediately upon entering the ambulance,” the Arkansas State Police said in a statement.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The state medical examiner will determine his cause of death.
Officials did not describe the type of training the officers were undergoing or how long they had been working out.
“In a day and time where so few are willing step up to be among those who protect and serve our communities, it seems unjust that a man like Officer Parks, who was prepared to sacrifice for his community, be taken from his calling,” Jami Cook, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Public Safety and director of the Commission of Arkansas Law Enforcement Standards and Training, said in a statement.
“We are saddened and grieve for him, his family, and fellow officers, yet we know his life was not in vain. He answered the call.”
Parks had just joined the Jonesboro Police Department on June 15.
