Fayetteville police officer charged with DWI
A Fayetteville police officer was arrested early Friday and charged with driving while impaired, misdemeanor hit and run and reckless driving after he wrecked his car and failed to contact police, officials with the Fayetteville Police Department said.
Posted — UpdatedInvestigators say Matthew U'ren, 25, crashed his personal car, a 2004 Chevrolet Impala, into a guardrail at the end of Camden Road, near Whitfield Street, around 11 p.m. Thursday.
U'ren called a private towing company and had his vehicle removed from the scene. Neither he nor the towing company notified a law enforcement agency, investigators said.
"They have 24 hours to notify the city that they have towed a vehicle inside our jurisdiction," said Sgt. Todd Joyce, who declined to release the name of the towing company.
Police say U'ren called a friend to drive him home and that person called police. Officers arrested U'ren at his home and took him to the Cumberland County Detention Center, where he registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.12. Under North Carolina law, a driver is considered impaired with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08.
He was released on a promise to appear in court.
U'ren has been employed with the Fayetteville Police Department for a year and a half and was assigned to the Cross Creek district. He has been placed on administrative leave, without pay, pending an internal investigation.
"We're not going to turn our heads away from that, just because he's an officer here at the department," Joyce said. "He's held in a higher standard, you know. We're going to treat the matter just as we would had it been any other citizen involved in an accident."
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