Ocala Police Sergeant, Ron Malone, was hit head on by hit-and-run suspect going 91 mph
OCALA, Fla. – After being seriously injured in a crash involving a hit-and-run suspect, an Ocala police sergeant is making it his mission to fully return to the police force.
It’s been nearly nine months since Ocala Police Sergeant, Ron Malone, was hit head on by a hit-and-run suspect going 91 mph.
“It’s a little hard to get next to the car because you can’t forget everything, and then you start having those thoughts,” Malone said.
Malone along with his fellow officers were working a hit-and-run crash at 17th Street and Pine Avenue in Ocala back in August 2023.
Malone and a K-9 Officer went looking for the car involved in the first crash, when he said things went from bad to worse.
“Officers got on the radio and stated that there was a another hit-and-run crash at that first crash scene and that somebody was likely dead and that our officers were now pursuing that suspect as well,” Malone said.
Malone said once he heard which way the second hit-and-run suspect was coming from, he realized they were headed in the direction toward himself and the K-9 officer.
“What I wanted to do was lay out the stop sticks and slow the car down so that other officers could capture the guy,” Malone said.
Malone said he hardly had any time to react before the crash happened.
“I believe he saw the lights and then he just veered right towards me,” Malone said. “There was nothing like I say it all the time I could do. I couldn’t have put it in reverse, gotten out of the way, there was nothing I could do. It happened in a fraction of a second.”
Malone suffered from 7 broken ribs, two cracked vertebrae and nerve damage. After months of physical therapy, shoulder surgery and an upcoming hip and knee surgeries, he’s now back at work preforming light duties.
“I’m contributing again because that was one of the things I stayed busy a lot and when you’re laid up and you can’t do anything and you can’t help your team that affects you emotionally right,” Malone said. “So coming back, that’s a step that helped me up here.”
Malone’s car was badly damaged in the crash. As a therapy exercise, Malone wrote a letter to Ford to tell them he survived the crash in one of their cars.
“When you look at the car and you look at the damage and you read the report and you know what happens, I just wanted to thank an engineer or somebody,” Malone said.
“I just wanted to, as part of my therapy for myself, say thank you to someone. I just had a little bit of a difficult time trying to find out who to send it to, and then it died off, and it didn’t come back until just now when we were standing next to the car.”
Throughout his experience, Malone has seen the importance of not only taking care of his physical health but his mental health too – whether it’s through writing letters or understanding the emotions he feels surrounding the crash and his recovery.
“I will say talking about things like this, all first responders need to know that – and military, I’ve been through a number of things and clearly if you have something you have got to talk about it,” Malone said.
Ocala Police tell News 6 the suspect in the hit-and-run crash who hit Malone later died at the hospital from his injuries.
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Source: Clickorlando
