HollyMatkinAscension Parish, LA – The 5-year-old daughter of a Louisiana sheriff’s deputy was killed on Friday evening, when another driver struck the deputy’s vehicle head-on.
“Daddy did everything he could do and the doctors didn’t stop until God called you home,” her heartbroken father, St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office Deputy Benjamin Teekell said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
Deputy Teekell, 32, was traveling westbound with his daughters, Addisyn and Ashtyn, when the eastbound driver of a 1999 GMC Yukon attempted to make a left-hand turn, WDSU reported.
Louisiana State Police said that Joey Gaudet, 35, crashed into the deputy’s 2013 GMC Terrain head-on, according to The Advocate.
Addisyn, 5, was rushed to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
“My beautiful baby girl,” Deputy Teekell wrote in his post. “God [gave] me 5 wonderful years of having the privilege of being your dad.”
Despite his inconceivable loss, the deputy continued to embrace his duty as a caretaker and role model for his girls.
“As for the driver who took my princess Addisyn away, if I can’t forgive you then I am a hypocrite to what I preached to Her,” he wrote. “And for her sake, I forgive you.”
Investigators said that Addisyn was properly belted into the vehicle, and that the circumstances of the incident remained under investigation, according to The Advocate.
Gaudet and Deputy Teekell both submitted to toxicology testing, although impairment was not believed to have been a factor in the fatal crash, according to police.
Both men were treated for minor injuries, The Advocate reported.
The collision also left her sister, 8-year-old Ashtyn, with a broken arm, and bleeding in her brain, Deputy Teekell said in his post.
On Tuesday, Deputy Teekell, a member of the sheriff’s office K9 unit, thanked his department for “coming in mass to show love for Ashtyn.”
“This completely made her day,” he said of the department members’ visit to his elder daughter. “People often talk of brotherhood but these amazing public servants walk it out and bear the true meaning of it.”
The sheriff’s office has also established a benefit for the deputy’s family, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.
Anybody can donate at any Regions Bank to the “Teekell Family Benefit Account.”
Online donations can be made through the LEO Only 501(c)(3) Charitable Organization on their website.
In honor of Addisyn, who “loved tutus,” her family has begun collecting tutus to donate to children battling with severe ailments or medical conditions, WAFB reported.
On Monday, Deputy Teekell announced that little Addisyn’s celebration of life would be held on Apr. 14.
“Addisyn loved Law Enforcement and always said, ‘Hey my dad is a cop,’ to every officer she saw,” her father wrote. “Everyone touched by Addisyn’s short but accomplished life on this earth are welcome… All LEOS are encouraged to attend.”