A soldier stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, was killed in a motorcycle crash Sunday morning while he was trying to flee state troopers, police said.

The soldier was identified as Eric James Merwin, 20, by the El Paso Police Department.

Merwin was riding a 2003 Yamaha at about 2:50 a.m. when a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper attempted to pull him over for a traffic infraction, El Paso police officials said in a press release.

Merwin was assigned to the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, when he was killed, according to a local NBC affiliate.

“The male driver refused to stop and fled from the [state] trooper,” police said in the release. “Preliminary investigation revealed that on Loop 375 South at mile post 35 the male driver of the motorcycle lost control of his vehicle and struck the guardrail.”

Merwin was thrown from his motorcycle after hitting the guardrail.

Special traffic investigators were called to the scene to assist the state trooper with the incident. However, Merwin had suffered fatal injuries from the ejection and died at the scene.

Kyle Rempfer was an editor and reporter who has covered combat operations, criminal cases, foreign military assistance and training accidents. Before entering journalism, Kyle served in U.S. Air Force Special Tactics and deployed in 2014 to Paktika Province, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq.

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