A civilian Navy police sergeant died in an early morning single vehicle crash while on duty in southern Maryland last month, according to the Naval Safety Center and Maryland State Police.
Naval District of Washington Police Sgt. Anthony Oglesby, Jr., 34, of Bowie, Maryland, died after his southbound patrol car left the roadway and struck a tree, which fell on his vehicle, igniting it, in rural Charles County around 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 18.
The accident occurred near Chicamuxen and Sweden Point roads north of Rison and he was declared dead at the scene, the state police said in a news release.
Naval Support Facility Indian Head, a component of Naval Support Activity South Potomac, is located near the crash site.
No one else was in the vehicle.
Maryland State Police spokesman Ron Snyder said Oglesby was not in pursuit of anyone at the time of the incident and that a preliminary probe revealed speed did not appear to be a factor in the fatality.
The crash remains under investigation.
According to a funeral program provided by his family, Oglesby —who went by the nickname “Heavy" —received a criminal justice degree from Fayetteville State University in North Carolina and completed federal law enforcement training in 2015.
He was promoted to sergeant in early 2019 while working at the Indian Head base.
Oglesby, the fifth of children, doted on his youngest sister, Kimberly, loved hosting — and grilling out with — his family and competed with his father, Anthony Gregory Oglesby, Sr., in bowling and to see who could catch the biggest fish.
He married his wife, Sandra Laura Kelley Oglesby, whom he called “Baby Girl,” on Dec. 1, 2018.
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Oglesby is survived by his wife; his parents, Sonya Kim and Anthony Oglesby, Sr.; brothers Evan Oglesby (Sadi), Kevin Burton (Paulette), and Davian Oglesby; four sisters, Jipika Oglesby (Randy), Kendria Oglesby (Byron), Alexis Knapp (Curtis) and Kimberly Kabria Oglesby; grandmother, Lucille Little, and mother-in-law Sandra Dean Harris.
He was buried Dec. 27 at National Harmony Memorial Park Cemetery in Hyattsville.
This story has been updated with Oglesby’s mother’s first name. An earlier version misidentified her.
Courtney Mabeus-Brown is the senior reporter at Air Force Times. She is an award-winning journalist who previously covered the military for Navy Times and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., where she first set foot on an aircraft carrier. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and more.
