Thurston County deputy struck with motorcycle helmet during arrest Monday, Sheriff says
Thurston County deputies tackled and arrested a 60-year-old Lacey man accused of striking a deputy with a motorcycle helmet Monday.
The incident occurred Monday evening in a neighborhood just west of the Regional Athletic Complex, near Lacey.
Two deputies initially responded to a call from a home on Titan Drive Southeast. The caller reported a driver struck bricks on their property and appeared intoxicated, according to court records. The driver provided his identification card to the property owner but the owner said he left the scene on foot before providing insurance information.
The man later returned to the scene and encountered the deputies. Sheriff Derek Sanders posted about the incident and shared dash camera video footage of the arrest on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
In the video, deputies can be seen grabbing onto a man holding a motorcycle helmet and taking him to the ground. In his post, Sanders alleges the man struck one of the deputies in the face with the helmet.
“No, no, no, man,” the man says in the video. “I’m not going to jail, man. Stop it. Don’t do this, man.”
After being tackled by deputies, the man said he could not breathe and deputies were “breaking his neck.” However, Sanders said deputies were not pressing on the man’s chest or neck area.
The man can be heard asking a bystander to record the interaction in the video. The person, identified as a family member, appears to record deputies as they are on top of the man.
“TCSO appreciates the bystanders exercising their right to record police in public while maintaining a safe distance away from the altercation so deputies could conduct their work safely,” Sanders said.
A Lacey police officer later responded to the scene and helped take the man into a patrol vehicle. In his post, Sanders thanked Lacey police for assisting deputies.
“This is a great example of the efforts law enforcement undertakes to use the least amount of force necessary to arrest individuals, even when they are armed with an object that can cause serious bodily harm or death,” Sanders said.
The man allegedly smelled of intoxicants and multiple wine bottles were found in his car and on his person.
Court records indicate the man declined to take a breath test three times and pretended to be asleep each time. Deputies then took him to an area hospital for a blood test.
Deputies later booked the man into the county jail on suspicion of felony harassment, second-degree assault, resisting arrest, hit and run unattended-vehicle and/or property, driving under the influence, third-degree driving while license suspended and operating a vehicle without a required ignition interlock.
