Four days after leaving an acute care hospital to continue recovering from a June 24 wreck while on duty, Warren County Deputy Sheriff David Lambert died Tuesday, July 20, 2010. He was 38.

Lambert was pronounced dead at 4:05 p.m. at Promise Specialty Hospital, said Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey.

Lambert’s cause of death was unknown, but was expected to be attributed to the wreck, Huskey said. An autopsy was ordered.

“He loved God, he loved his family and he was wholly dedicated to law enforcement,” said Annette Lambert, the deputy’s wife of 18 years. “He would pray before he went off in his patrol car every day and ask God to help him be the kind of police officer that would please him.”

“The Warren County Sheriff’s Department family is devastated by his loss,” Sheriff Martin Pace said this morning. “He was a very professional peace officer, and although he had only been with us for the past 6 months, this department and community will certainly miss him.”

Pace said Lambert’s death came “quite unexpectedly.”

“We had been very encouraged by his improvement over the past few days,” said the sheriff, who had visited Lambert on Sunday and Monday. “We were all encouraged that he was well on his way to recovery.”

Lambert was injured in the wreck on U.S. 61 North near Oak Ridge Road, which occurred around 3:45 a.m. Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol Staff Sgt. Dennis Weaver, who responded, said he believed Lambert was northbound responding to a call.

His death follows by 14 months the on-duty death of another Warren County deputy, Tom Wilson, who was on his way to assist an ambulance call May 17, 2009, on U.S.61 South when his cruiser hydroplaned and flipped. Wilson, 39, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Pace said the losses have been hard on the department, which considers itself a family. “It’s like losing a second family member in a little over a year,” he said. Deputies placed mourning bands on their badges today.

Lambert had been in law enforcement since 1995 and joined the sheriff’s department here in January.

Annette Lambert said her husband loved working in Warren County. “He said it was the best opportunity the Lord had ever presented to him,” she said. “He was so proud and honored to work with all of them.”

He had been an officer with the Ross Barnett Reservoir Patrol, a state law enforcement agency, from 2008 to December 2009. He was a security supervisor at River Oaks Medical Center in Brandon from 2006 to 2008, and was an officer with University Medical Center police from 1995 to 2006, Pace said.

Annette Lambert is a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at River Region Medical Center after having previously worked at University Medical Center in Jackson. They moved to Vicksburg in August, she said.

Lambert was initially listed in critical condition and was treated in the Intensive Care Unit at UMC after being airlifted there from RRMC shortly after the wreck. Saturday, he was transferred to the Vicksburg facility, which specializes in longer-term care. Lambert had sustained head injuries, a broken shoulder, pelvic bone and ribs and crushed hip.

The investigation at the scene showed that as Lambert passed the Oak Ridge Road intersection, he swerved to the left, hit the median and corrected before the cruiser, a Ford Crown Victoria, rolled and then came to rest on the east shoulder. Weaver said two sets of tire marks were found, indicating that another car might have been involved.

“It looks like he was avoiding something coming from his right at the intersection,” Weaver said at the time. “Normally, you don’t see acceleration marks like that at an intersection. People don’t usually squeal their tires at a green light.”

No further information has been released about the wreck, and a spokesman with MHSP was not available today. Wrecks at the T-intersection are not uncommon. A student, Savanah Mignon Belgard, 19, of Florence, was killed there on May 31, 2006. The portion of Oak Ridge that joins the highway was formerly known as Bowie Road.

Lambert and his wife were natives of Opelika, Ala.

Along with his wife, he leaves three stepchildren, Susanne Coleman and Cynthia Nichols of Opelika, and Michael Farmer of Brandon; his parents, Roger and Delaine Easterling of Opelika; three brothers, Michael Lambert and Roger Easterling Jr. of Opelika and Ronnie Lambert of Nashville; and seven step-grandchildren.

He was predeceased by his sister, Rhonda Coleman.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete but expected to be handled by Jackson’s Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home.