Kansas ATV driver who died trying to jump a ditch was a Newton police officer

A man who died Wednesday in an all-terrain vehicle crash while trying to jump a ditch was a police officer, officials said.

Kansas Highway Patrol troopers wrote in a crash report that 30-year-old Levi Minkevitch of Peabody died Wednesday afternoon in a Harvey County wreck.

Emergency crews were called at around 3:58 p.m. to the accident on Dutch Avenue, in between Harvest Hill Road and Osage Road. They found a Can-Am ATV and Minkevitch, who was taken to a Newton hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“The rider attempted to jump the ditch into the adjacent field,” the KHP report states. “The rider lost control and rolled the ATV into the creek.”

Minkevitch was a sergeant with the Newton Police Department. He was off-duty at the time of his death.

“Levi was a tremendous police officer and a friend to everyone he met,” the department said in a Facebook post. “He had a large presence and a smile that lit up a room. This loss is truly devastating.”

This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 1:36 PM.