By Nashelly Chavez
The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento County Sheriff's deputy was hospitalized early Saturday after attempting to hang on to a female motorist through a car window as she fled the scene of a Fair Oaks traffic stop.
The deputy stopped the driver after a Mercedes appeared to be chasing a man running in a roadway, according to a department news release.
The incident occurred just before 3:30 a.m. when a Sacramento County sheriff's deputy saw a man running near Winding Oak and Long Canyon drives in Fair Oaks.
The news release said the man appeared to be running away from a Mercedes with paper license plates. The deputy told dispatchers what he had seen and then pulled over the Mercedes. The running man also stopped.
The deputy made contact with the man who was running, then approached the female driver of the Mercedes. He asked for her license and paperwork and told the driver to step out of the car, which she did.
“The female then quickly jumped back into the car. The deputy attempted to detain the female from inside the car, when she quickly put the car in drive and accelerated while the deputy was hanging on,” the release stated.
“The deputy unholstered his firearm, and in the process of disengaging from the speeding car, discharged his firearm at the suspect,” the release stated.
As the female driver and an unidentified female passenger sped away, the man fled on foot.
Although the deputy was taken to an area hospital without taking in any of the three people contacted into custody, the license of a 26-year-old female was later found at the scene.
Sgt. Tony Turnbull, a spokesman for the department, said in an email that the deputy was taken to the hospital with injuries to his upper body. He was described as a 13-year veteran of the department assigned to the field services division and is expected to recover from his injuries.
Detectives from the Sheriff's Major Crime Bureau found the driver at a residence later that morning, according to the department news release. Several firearms were also found in the home. Turnbull said in an email Saturday that the woman was being booked into jail.
The department is still trying to identify the man who was running and the passenger in the woman's car. An investigation into the incident will be investigated by the Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau and Professional Standards Division, a standard procedure followed anytime a deputy fires a weapon while on the job.
The deputy involved in the shooting will be placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation, according to the department.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service