Placer deputies injured while arresting man with knife in waistband and hatchet in car
Two Placer County sheriff’s deputies were injured this week while subduing a North Dakota man with a knife in his waistband and a hatchet hidden in his vehicle, officials said.
The incident occurred shortly before 1 a.m. Monday when a patrol deputy conducted a traffic stop along the eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 near Dry Creek Road in Auburn, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release Thursday.
David Roy Dunbar of Dickinson, North Dakota, was driving the vehicle the deputy pulled over. Sheriff’s officials said a second deputy arrived, and the two tried to detain Dunbar, who ran off.
Dunbar, 44, led the deputies in a short chase, running across the eastbound I-80 lanes before Dunbar ran back to his vehicle, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The deputies tried to detain him there again, but sheriff’s officials said Dunbar continued to resist arrest while trying to reach inside his vehicle.
Dunbar at one point reached with his left hand into his waistband, but the deputies subdued him after a brief struggle, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s officials said the deputies later found Dunbar had a fixed-blade knife with a blade about 6 inches long tucked in his waistband where he had been reaching.
After Dunbar and his passenger, Erin Bridget McCuiston, were handcuffed, the deputies searched the vehicle and found the hatchet hidden in the driver’s side door along with bullets, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The deputies suffered minor injuries while taking Dunbar into custody.
“Had the deputies not been able to efficiently restrain Dunbar, he could have attacked them using the concealed dagger in his waistband, or the hatchet in the driver’s side door, where he kept reaching,” sheriff’s officials said in the news release.
Dunbar was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, battery on a peace officer with injury, carrying a concealed dagger, unlawful possession of ammunition by a felon and possessing methamphetamine and heroin.
McCuiston, 46, of Brookdale in Santa Cruz County, was arrested on suspicion of possessing a concealed dagger, possessing meth and possessing a meth pipe.
