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U.S.|U.S. Senator’s Son Gets 28 Years for Car Chase That Killed Sheriff’s Deputy
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/us/ian-cramer-north-dakota-sentenced.html
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Ian Cramer, the 43-year-old son of Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, led the police on a highway pursuit that killed a sheriff’s deputy.
Dec. 30, 2024, 9:44 p.m. ET
The son of Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Monday in connection with a high-speed car chase that ended with a crash that killed a sheriff’s deputy last year.
Ian Cramer, 43, led the police on a highway pursuit on Dec. 6, 2023, after speeding away from a hospital in Bismarck, N.D., where his mother had tried to take him that day because he was experiencing a mental health crisis, the authorities said.
The authorities were able to locate Ian Cramer in Hazen, N.D., roughly 70 miles away in Mercer County and pursued him for about five miles until he crashed into an unoccupied sheriff’s patrol car that was parked on the side of a highway. The impact killed Paul Martin, 53, a Mercer County sheriff’s deputy who was standing behind the car when it was struck.
Mr. Cramer pleaded guilty to all nine counts against him in September, including homicide while fleeing a peace officer, fleeing arrest; reckless endangerment and other drug- and driving-related offenses.
After the arrest, Senator Cramer issued a statement saying that his son had suffered from “serious mental disorders which manifest in severe paranoia and hallucinations.”
In handing down the sentence, Judge Bobbi Weiler of the South Central Judicial District of North Dakota told Mr. Cramer that he had ample support to get help. “You had resources, more resources than 99 percent of the people that I’ve seen,” she said, according to footage of the sentencing published by The Bismarck Tribune.
