THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. — A Thurston County School Resource Officer came across a head-on collision on SR 510, and ended up having to defend herself when the causing driver became belligerent.
According to Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders, that driver was believed to have been heavily intoxicated.
The driver refused commands from the SRO and squared off with the deputy while she held the man at taser point.
The man then went back to his vehicle and began digging around, prompting the deputy to holster her taser and transition to gunpoint.
Sanders said the man charged at the deputy, who went back to her taser.
Then, the man pivoted toward the victim in the crash, who was hurt in the collision. The deputy placed herself between the victim and the man, and fired her taser. All ten probes were deployed and the man fought through the taser.
The fight went to the ground, at which point the causing driver actively attempted to remove the deputy’s gun from her holster, Sanders said.
The deputy stayed in the fight for two minutes until an off-duty corrections officer with a concealed pistol license intervened, hitting the man multiple times in the face with their gun.
A Nisqually Tribal Police Officer arrived on scene and worked to pry the suspect away from the deputy’s handgun.
An additional deputy arrived on scene and applied a second taser while the suspect continued to fight for the holstered handgun, at which point lockup occurred and he was detained, Sanders said.
The deputy is being treated for her injuries while the suspect and victim of the car crash are transported to the hospital.
Once cleared from the hospital, the suspect will be booked for numerous crimes, including DUI and felony assault on a peace officer, Sanders said.
Sanders said the man arrested is also a convicted felon.
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