watch where you drive that thing!Follow

Police SUV runs over, kills sunbather on beach

OXNARD, California (AP) -- Two police officers patrolling a beach in an SUV on Monday ran over and killed a sunbather, authorities said.

The officers did not immediately realize they ran over the woman and continued driving, police Cmdr. Tom Chronister said in a statement.

The officers, who were not immediately identified, had stopped on a small berm of sand to watch a swimmer who they believed to be in distress. When they saw the swimmer was fine, they drove over the berm and apparently over the woman's head, authorities said.

A witness called the Oxnard Fire Department to report the woman was bleeding on the beach just south of the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort. The woman, Cindy Conolly, 49, of Sioux City, Iowa, was in town for her son's wedding, said Mike Feiler, senior deputy medical examiner in the Ventura County coroner's office.

An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday. The officers have been placed on paid leave pending an investigation.

Oxnard is located about 55 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

What a way to go. And there for her sons wedding too. Thats going to put a damper on festivities

They run over a woman's head, and they get an indefinite paid vacation for it?!

OMGWTFBBQ!!1!one

They're cops, it's cool. They'll be on leave for a few weeks until it blows over and they send some drug money to the lady's family. They're only on leave because it's in the papers.

Not only do they drive up and down the beaches constantly, but they also fire randomly into the sand with the machine guns mounted on their trucks.

¡Olé!

The police in Cancun scared me. Every single one had a submachine gun. I'm not usually jumpy around guns, but when you see that much firepower at one time in a country not know for straight cops... it is a bit worrisome.

That sucks

OMG....I must be a sicko for laughing at that...

This is a sad story, but anyone that's driven on sand will tell you that you run over things all the time, and never realize it. If you can't see it, and the sand is soft, you'll never know it was there. I really feel bad for everyone involved in this one...the cops were trying to make sure a swimmer was safe, while a woman that just happend to be laying in the wrong place gets run over. Sounds like a bad after school special about staying alert...

I'd say chances are good it'll be a closed coffin, unless the morticians can remove the treadmarks across her face.

If the story given by the cops holds any water at all, one then has to wonder what the hell the woman was thinking too. It's not like those vehicles are silent stalkers. If they did stop shortly before driving on, one would think she had time to notice the SUV and react. This is of course pending the validity of the officers’ story.

Sadly.

How funny, Oxnard is the city I grew up in and that's the beach I use to live on (at? by? near? whatever!) until last year.

Even if she was asleep she should have heard something. I know some people sleep pretty damn soundly (I was one up to a few years ago) but you got a big ole suv right near you and don't wake up? That had to have been one hell of a sound sleeper if so... and if not, why didn't she react in some other way?

I'd kind of like to see a picture of the beach area and how far away they (said) they stopped. I know driving on the beach you hit things all the time, but a human has GOT to be a different feel... I think there is something more going on her then meets the eye personally...

I can see that scene now in my head... Son's at the alter and the police come barging in just as he is about to say "I do" and arrest him.