The Minnesota State Patrol now says that alcohol was not a factor in an off-duty St. Cloud police officer’s fatal crash in the Twin Cities last month.
Officer Ryan Ebert, 44, of Big Lake, crashed his pickup truck into the back of a Minnesota Valley Transit Authority bus on Oct. 13 on northbound Hwy. 77 just south of Interstate 35E in Apple Valley and died on Oct. 18 at HCMC.
The State Patrol’s publicly available crash report initially said alcohol use by Ebert was a factor, and a search warrant affidavit filed in court by the patrol said both a trooper and emergency medical personnel detected an odor of alcohol coming from him in the moments after he crashed into the bus while speeding.
Ebert’s family and St. Cloud Police Chief Jeff Oxton disputed the patrol’s determination. A family representative provided documentation to the Minnesota Star Tribune that said his blood alcohol content was 0.009%, a negligible amount well under the legal limit for driving.
Oxton said in a statement soon after Ebert’s death: “Toxicology from blood samples taken by medical staff upon Ryan’s arrival at the hospital indicate that he had a very small or trace-amount of alcohol in his system, significantly below that which would ever lead to a person being considered impaired or driving under the influence.”
On Oct. 30, the patrol changed its web page for the incident to indicate alcohol use by Ebert was not a factor. The Minnesota Star Tribune reached out to the patrol for elaboration.
“The ‘alcohol involved’ was changed from ‘yes’ to ‘no’ during this investigation,” said Patrol Lt. Mike Lee, the agency’s chief spokesman. “It was changed because alcohol was initially thought to have been involved, but after further investigation it was determined it was not.”
Lee offered no specifics on how the revised determination was made or an explanation for the origin of the odor of alcohol, citing the ongoing investigation.
