Randall County Sergeant Killed in Off-Duty Accident on Mother’s Day

Mother's Day is supposed to be a day that you spend with your family. You have great memories and stories to tell. This Mother's Day didn't turn out that way for one Amarillo family.

I got to work this morning and started seeing a bunch of my police officer friends posting a photo with the blue line. You know when you see it that an officer lost their life. It didn't take long to see it was an Amarillo officer.

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I wasn't sure what had happened. I just knew his name was Jay Claxton. I did a Google search but still, there was nothing on social media. I didn't want to reach out to any of my officer friends to be nosey. I knew they were going through a lot of pain.

Later this morning I received the Nixle report in my email. All it said was about an accident. No word about who it really was.

On Sunday May 14th at 7:56 PM, Amarillo Police Officers were called to the area of Buccola Avenue and Nick Street on a crash involving a pedestrian. A silver SUV, driven by a 19-year-old female, struck a boat parked on the side of the street. Wayland Jay Claxton, 57-year-old male, was working on the boat and became trapped under the boat trailer during the collision. Claxton died as a result of injuries received in the incident. The crash remains under investigation by the Amarillo Police Department Traffic Investigation Unit.

I was already searching for what happened to Jay Claxton when I got this report. I was, of course, able to put two and two together. The fallen police officer, Jay Claxton was involved in this accident.

The outpouring of love and support from this community is something that you do expect to see. They did not at all disappoint. Prayers to the family, friends and co-workers.