photo by: Contributed Photo

Gabriel F. Sosman-Bernhardt

Updated at 2:45 p.m. Monday

A man who died in a motorcycle crash in west Lawrence early Sunday morning has been identified.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said the motorcyclist was 25-year-old Gabriel F. Sosman-Bernhardt. He died in a crash, sometime after failing to stop for a police officer, according to a Lawrence Police Department news release.

Shortly after 1 a.m., an officer initiated a traffic stop on a motorcycle for a traffic violation near Monterey Way and Bob Billings Parkway. The motorcycle failed to stop and fled the area at a high rate of speed, according to the news release. After a brief pursuit, the officer terminated the pursuit and left the area after losing sight of the motorcycle, police said.

At 5:33 a.m., a motorist called authorities regarding what the motorist believed to be a jogger in distress in the 5700 block of Bob Billings Parkway, a little less than two miles west from Monterey Way. Officers arrived in the area and observed a motorcycle had crashed and the driver, who was later identified as Sosman-Bernhardt, was dead.

The Lawrence Police Department contacted the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and requested an independent investigation of the incident. As of Sunday, the investigation was ongoing. Jenn Hethcoat, a public information officer with the sheriff’s office, did not immediately respond to a Journal-World request on Monday for the status of the investigation.

The Lawrence Police Department’s Office of Professional Accountability was notified and the officer involved in the incident was placed on administrative leave, per department policy, according to the release.

Following the completion of the investigation conducted by the sheriff’s office, a separate internal review will be conducted by the police department to determine whether policies and procedures were followed.

Officials have not released any further details about the incident, but Vic Prieto, a friend of Sosman-Bernhardt’s, told the Journal-World that Sosman-Bernhardt had lived in Lawrence his whole life.

“He loved his parents dearly, looked out for all his friends and was a happy, fun-loving person,” Prieto said. “Along with that he was a talented music artist who spent a lot of time singing and writing about the kind of things in life that really matter.”