KERRVILLE, TX — Three members of the Thin Blue Line Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club are dead after an alleged drunk driver crashed into them near Kerrville, Texas.
The Kerr County Sheriff's Office said members were on a ride Saturday on HWY 16 south of Kerrville when another driver crossed the center stripe.
Three people are dead and nine others were transported to the hospital in critical condition, according to deputies.
The driver of the vehicle was arrested for several counts of intoxicated manslaughter and intoxicated assault.
The motorcycle club, comprised of active and retired law enforcement officers and military service members, had gathered in Texas for the weekend to celebrate the group's 11th birthday, according to a spokesman for the club.
The club members killed were identified as Joseph Paglia, Jerry Wayne Harbour and Michael White, according to a statement issued by David Weed, a spokesman for the club. Weed said the club members were attending the annual Thin Blue Line meeting in Bandera, Texas, and celebrating the club's birthday.
Weed said Paglia was a former Niles City, Illinois, police officer and the president of the motorcycle club's Chicago chapter. He said White, a former Chicago Community Services officer and U.S. Army veteran, was also a member of the Chicago chapter and served as its secretary.
Harbour, who was from Houston, was a Thin Blue Line National Ambassador, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a retired Eastern Airlines pilot, Weed said.
"These men who spent their lives serving our Country and their communities with valor and honor," Weed said in his statement.
He said the crash occurred when a group of club members went on a "leisurely motorcycle ride" headed back to Bandera after having lunch in Kerrville.
