Glenn Morshower Partners with PursuitSAFETY
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Glenn Morshower, known for his series roles on Friday Night Lights, The West Wing, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and playing Agent Aaron Pierce on the FOX TV show 24, is the official spokesperson for Voices Insisting on PursuitSAFETY.
Glenn has portrayed at least 22 police officers, 21 military personnel, 10 government agents, and a number of Secret Service agents. He also works as a motivational speaker when he is not acting.
Glenn's late father, a former Naval Officer, continues to be an inspiration to him. Glenn uses a more defined southern accent rather than his own, partially based on his father's accent, while portraying Aaron Pierce.
In his new role as PursuitSAFETY’s spokesperson, Glenn will give a voice to the children and unsuspecting adults killed or maimed as a result of police car chases. Immediate plans include filming public service announcements to raise awareness that police chases kill the innocent.
“On average, at least three innocent bystanders are killed each week in the United States,” Glenn said. “That’s a high number. Even one is a high number when that one is someone you love.”
The death of one victim tugged at Glenn’s heart. In June 2006, he watched a video on the Internet. He learned that in 2002 Mark and Candy Priano, together with their two children Steve and Kristie, were driving to Kristie’s high school basketball game in Chico, California. They got caught in the middle of a police chase. The police were chasing a teenager. They knew her name, where she lived and that she was driving her mother’s car without permission. Kristie was killed when the teenager, still being chased, T-boned the Priano’s minivan at an intersection in a residential neighborhood.
After watching the Internet video, Glenn sent an email to the Priano family, already sensing this one death would lead him to many more when he wrote, “I felt such pain in my heart when I watched a video on the Internet about Kristie. ... If there is ever anything I can be a part of, along with your family, to help get the word out, please let me know. I'd like to be of service in some way."
Candy and other advocates for safer police pursuits founded PursuitSAFETY on June 30, 2007. With the organization incorporated and an advisory board with members representing law enforcement, an international expert on high-risk police activities, and victims’ advocates in place by January 2008, Candy contacted Glenn by email to ask if he would consider serving as the organization’s spokesperson.
Glenn's response: “I would be honored.”
“I believe in what Candy’s doing,” Glenn said. “PursuitSAFETY is trying to prevent this tragedy from happening to others. We don’t want another family to experience the unnecessary death of a loved one. All of these families have learned in the worst way that even if you do everything right, it can happen to you. I'm a father. I have a son and daughter. In Los Angeles, we have a lot of chases. They are on TV all the time. I can't even begin to imagine having a child killed this way and to learn the person the police were chasing went home with her mother, which is what happened to Candy and Mark when Kristie was killed.”
Glenn visited Candy and Mark in Chico in early February.
“Glenn looked at pictures of Kristie and asked about her personality,” Candy said. “I shared funny stories about her tenacity, her love of animals and the ways she volunteered in the community. We also visited the Chico Creek Nature Center where Kristie volunteered as a junior naturalist.”
During his visit to Chico, Glenn listened to an account from Elizabeth "Lizzy" Lee, a woman in North Carolina, who was seeking help from PursuitSAFETY. A police chase killed Lizzy's two younger sisters, Linsay, 18, and Maggie Rose Lunsford, 9, on Dec. 1, 2007. The girls were driving to their father’s house after a morning of Christmas shopping.
Glenn bent his head as he listened, made mention of Lizzy's Southern accent and then said, "We need to get started."