Off-Duty Memphis Officer Dies in Crash

An off-duty Memphis Police Officer was riding his motorcycle when he suddenly slammed into a car and died Tuesday afternoon at the intersection of Quince and Sea Isle. Witnesses say 27-year-old Rico McMoore was riding down Quince, when a woman in a white car pulled-out from Sea Isle in front of McMoore. He hit her back driver's side door. "The driver pulled out too soon. But she couldn't see him because he was coming so fast," witness Marcus Anthony said. One witness says the woman refused to get out of her car after the crash."

"She was terrified. Her thing was, is he alive, is he alive. That's all she was asking, is he alive? So, I know it was really bad for her," Tamika Bonner said.

McMoore's mother and wife begged officers to see him. His lifeless body was still lying in the middle of Quince when his family arrived Tuesday afternoon. He was next to his banged-up bike, he loved to ride.

Also mourning his death, McMoore's fellow officers. He had been a member of the MPD since 2001.

McMoore's facebook page reads like a eulogy... with friends saying their sad goodbyes. In his last post, McMoore wrote, "I'm sitting here trying to learn the key to happiness in life." His family members say, he filled their lives with happiness.

"He's just a wonderful person. He was excellent at his job. He was a great friend. A wonderful father. And he's going to be very, very missed by people," McMoore's aunt, Karen Rankins, said.

McMoore leaves behind a wife and three little boys. Memphis police say the 29-year-old driver of the other car was at fault. They cited her for "failure to yield pulling from a stop sign."