The Republic | azcentral.com

An off-duty Mesa police officer was killed early Monday morning by a driver who drove more than 30 miles in the wrong direction on Valley freeways before colliding head-on with the officer near the U.S. 60 interchange with Interstate 10, according to Mesa police and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Police identified the officer Monday morning as Brandon Mendoza.

Mesa police Chief Frank Milstead called Mendoza an icon in the Mesa Police Department and praised him for his work in the community.

"He was everything you want your officers to be: approachable, empathetic, understanding," Milstead said.

The incident began about 12:30 a.m. Sunday when DPS officers received a report of a motorist driving the wrong way on Loop 101 near Cactus Road, said Officer Carrick Cook, a DPS spokesman.

The driver continued to drive west in the eastbound lanes of Loop 101 then south in the northbound lanes of State Route 51, Cook said.

A DPS officer attempted to stop the vehicle on State Route 51 near Thomas Road, but the driver went around the officer and continued east in the westbound lanes of Interstate 10, Cook said.

The driver continued going the wrong way as he entered U.S. 60 from I-10 and hit the officer head-on, Cook said.

Mesa officer killed in wrong-way crash

The motorist driving the wrong way was also killed in the collision, police said.

Mendoza had completed a shift and was on his way home Monday morning.

By about 9 a.m., nearly two dozen people waited outside as Mendoza's body was taken out of Maricopa Medical Center.

A group of officers and others close to Mendoza walked out of the medical center alongside Mendoza's body, draped in an American flag.

Officers stood at attention and saluted while others hugged and held each other as Mendoza was place in a white van.

A police motorcade escorted the van on the short journey to the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office, where the caravan arrived by 9:30 a.m.

Fallen East Valley officers