A four-car pileup on Interstate 277 left one person dead and eight injured Saturday morning. Two of the injured were Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers.

The victim killed was identified as William Alan Sweezer, 54.

The string of crashes began at 7:20 a.m. when Officer Jeff Templeton of the Central Division responded to a disabled Chevy Impala on the I-277 outer loop approaching Carson Boulevard. The Impala, occupied by a driver and two passengers, was parked on the left side of the roadway out of the travel lanes.

After Templeton had gotten out of his marked CMPD cruiser, it was struck from the rear by a Toyota Camry occupied by a driver and three passengers.

Moments later, Westover Division Officer Chris Kunz, who was off duty and driving his personal vehicle, stopped to assist Templeton. That’s when a Toyota 4-Runner crashed into the right rear of the Toyota Camry which had initially crashed into Officer Templeton’s cruiser.

As a result of the second crash, Sweezer, the driver of the Toyota Camry, at that point standing on the roadway talking to the officers, was struck and killed by the Toyota 4-Runner.

Officers Templeton and Kunz were struck also and taken to Carolinas Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

Officer Kunz’s unoccupied personal vehicle was then struck by a cab driver traveling along I-277.

A total of eight patients -- the two officers, three passengers from the Toyota Camry and three occupants of the Chevy Impala -- were taken to area hospitals. None of the four occupants in the Toyota 4-Runner was injured.

Police continue to investigate the crash.

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