The Associated Press
KENAI, Alaska (AP) -- Five weeks after a Kenai, Alaska police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty, a man charged with drunken driving attempted to take a Soldotna police officer’s weapon, police said.
Joel K. Blatchford, 48, of Soldotna, was charged Friday with attempted assault and attempted escape after he tried to take Officer Gisele Webster’s handgun while she was processing his arrest at Alaska State Trooper offices in Soldotna, according to charging documents.
Webster found Blatchford in his pickup truck stuck in a snow berm and arrested him on a driving under the influence charge.
Blatchford was taken to the trooper post and was being processed when he lunged at Webster and grabbed her .45 caliber automatic pistol, attempting to remove it from its holster, police said.
The two struggled and Blatchford was able to free one of three retention straps holding the gun in the holster.
The struggle continued and trooper Sgt. Craig Macdonald heard Webster yell for help, rushed to her aid and saw the 5-foot, 9-inch, 180-pound Blatchford struggling with Webster’s weapon.
Macdonald used pepper spray and physical force to remove Blatchford from Webster, Soldotna Police administrative Sgt. Marvin Towell told the Peninsula Clarion.
Blatchford was jailed at Wildwood Pretrial Facility.
“It was like deja vu,” Towell said, referring to the shooting in Kenai in which Officer John Watson was shot and killed on Christmas during a struggle with a suspect.
David S. Forster, 34, of Kenai, is charged in that case with one count of murder, two counts of assault and two counts of domestic violence-related assault.