Vogwill
An 18-year veteran police officer died in an off-duty motorcycle crash allegedly caused by a drunk driver in the Northeast on Sunday afternoon.
Police identified the victim as Officer Lamar Poole Sr., 42, who lived in Mayfair and was assigned to the 12th district in Southwest Philly. According to authorities and published reports, Poole had finished a shift and was headed to a family cookout at about 4:10 p.m. while riding his privately owned Honda VTX motorcycle westbound on Devereaux Street crossing Roosevelt Boulevard.
A 1999 Toyota Corolla was traveling on Devereaux in the opposite direction when the driver turned left onto the Boulevard into Poole’s path. The motorcycle collided with the passenger side of the car.
The other driver, Louis John Vogwill, 59, of the 6100 block of Loretto Ave. in Oxford Circle, reportedly stopped briefly to view the wreckage, but then returned to his car and allegedly drove northbound on Roosevelt Boulevard to Harbison Avenue, where a wrecker truck operator who had witnessed the crash blocked Vogwill’s alleged escape until on-duty police arrived and arrested him.
Vogwill was charged with involuntary manslaughter, homicide by vehicle, driving while under the influence and related offenses. Sunday was his birthday. He is jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Poole was taken to Aria Health’s Torresdale hospital in critical condition. A doctor pronounced him dead at 5:02 p.m. Poole is survived by a wife and seven children. He gained citywide notoriety as a basketball star for Edison High and was named by Public League coaches to the All-Public first team in 1992 alongside other notables including Rasheed Wallace, Jason Lawson, Malik Rose and Tyrone Weeks. ••
