Officials say a police officer fatally shot a man who pointed a gun at him.

TAMPA, Fla. – A police officer intentionally veered his SUV into the path of a wrong-way driver to keep him from hitting others on Interstate 275 in Tampa, police and eyewitness accounts say. Master Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen, 45, and Daniel Joshua Montague, 25, of Golden, Colorado, were killed in the crash early Tuesday morning, Tampa police Chief Brian Dugan said during a Thursday news conference. Madsen, who was on patrol, was traveling at about 65 mph (104 kph) when the crash occurred. “Officer Madsen is a true American hero,” Dugan said. Montague was moving to Tampa and had been in the city for less than 12 hours, Dugan said.

TAMPA, Fla. – A Florida police detective was arrested Tuesday for tampering with evidence after she covered up a procedural mistake she had made during an attempted murder investigation, officials said. Tampa police Chief Brian Dugan said during a news conference that Jarda Bradford, 38, faces two counts of evidence tampering. The chief explained that it is department procedure to mask any identifying markers such as tattoos or jewelry when presenting a photo lineup. When another detective pointed out the mistake, Dugan said Bradford added the masking, but only after she had already shown the photos to a witness. “This is a procedural issue with evidence -- it’s not crime scene evidence that was manipulated,” Dugan said.