Police1 Staff Report
(PHOENIX, Ariz.) -- An off-duty sheriff’s deputy shot the allegedly drunken driver of a pickup truck at a Sunday swap meet, authorities said.
When the truck driver refused to stop, the deputy reached into the cab to grab the ignition keys.
When the driver drove off and ran the deputy into a parked car, the deputy fired his service weapon, according to Maricopa County Sheriff’s office spokesman Detective Bill Knight.
At approximately 10 p.m. Sunday at the west Phoenix swap meet Deputy David Bradway spotted the man driving his pickup truck erratically in the parking lot.
The driver failed to turn off the truck’s ignition and Bradway reached into the driver’s window, police said. At that point the suspect grabbed Bradway’s arm, pinning it against the inside of the door and drove off, according to Knight.
After being dragged into the car and firing his weapon Bradway fell away from the pickup.
The suspect drove the pickup into a fence, Knight told the Arizona Republic. Officers at the scene extracted the driver from of the truck and he was taken to a local hospital.
At press time Tuesday Police1.com was waiting for authorities to release the suspect’s identity and condition. Bradway, who suffered bruises but no broken bones, was treated and released.