Placerville man arrested after allegedly hitting officer and patrol vehicles with metal pole
A 43-year-old Placerville man was arrested late Sunday night after he used an 8-foot metal pole to smash two patrol vehicles and hit an officer’s hand as authorities tried to subdue him, police said.
The incident began shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday when officers responded to the 1300 block of Broadway in Placerville. Someone called authorities to report of a suspicious man with a “stick” looking into parked cars and acting aggressively, the Placerville Police Department announced Tuesday in a news release.
Officers arrived at the scene within minutes of the call and found the suspect who is known to the officers from multiple police contacts. Police said the Placerville man had a metal pole that was about 8 feet long.
The man disobeyed orders from the officers and began walking away, according to the Police Department. An El Dorado County sheriff’s deputy in the area heard the Placerville police radio traffic and went to the scene to help the officers.
The deputy pulled into a parking lot where the incident was unfolding. Police said the man then charged the deputy’s patrol vehicle and struck the windshield with the metal pole while the deputy was still inside the vehicle.
The man then approached a Placerville police vehicle and used the metal pole to smash the left rear passenger window and damage the window’s metal frame, police said.
The officers continued to order the man orders to drop the pole. Police said the officers fired their department-issued Tasers multiple times, but the Tasers were ineffective.
Officers followed the suspect west on Broadway, repeatedly telling him to stop. Police said the man charged at an officer, which forced the officer to fire less-lethal bean bag rounds, which hit the man in the chest and back.
Police said the suspect then swung the metal pipe at the officer, hitting him in the hand.
A sheriff’s K-9 deputy who responded to calls for help deployed his dog, which bit the suspect, according to the Police Department. Once the suspect was on the ground, the officers were able to take him into custody.
Police said staff at Marshall Medical Center in Placerville medically cleared the suspect before he was booked at the El Dorado County Jail on charges of assault with a deadly weapon on an officer, resisting officers with force and felony vandalism and violating probation.
He remained in custody at the jail Tuesday, where he was being held in lieu of $565,000 bail.
This story was originally published August 8, 2023 at 7:44 PM.
