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A 22-year-old Henrico County sheriff’s deputy working toward his lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer died in a car crash early Thursday morning in Goochland County.

Gabriel T. Pearce, of the 12000 block of Walnut Hill Drive in Rockville, died about 2:40 a.m. when his 2003 Honda CRV ran off the left side of Rockville Road, struck several trees and overturned, ejecting him from the vehicle, said Goochland County Sheriff James L. Agnew.

There was no immediate indication of the cause of the wreck.

“When the officers came to the door, we knew something had happened to him,” said Pearce’s mother, Noemi Pearce, whose husband had been stopped near the crash site on his way to work because of the wreck.

She said her son, one of five children, lived at home to save money and always called if he was going to be late. There was no call Thursday. Pearce, who attended Patrick Henry High School, had been out with friends on his day off and had finished an 88-hour workweek as a sheriff’s deputy in Henrico County, his mother said.

He played rugby, loved the country life and was set on achieving his goals from an early age. “He would always finish his homework and couldn’t stand not getting it done from the minute he got home from school,” his mother said.