Monique Batson and Jacob Dick
Beaumont Enterprise, Texas
SOUR LAKE, Texas — A Sour Lake Police Department officer has suffered head injuries after he was reportedly assaulted.
William McKeon, 59, was in “very critical, but stable condition” Tuesday and will “undergo numerous surgeries in the coming hours and days,” Hardin County Sheriff Mark Davis said.
McKeon, a four-year veteran of the department, responded around 8:30 p.m. to a call from J&R Meat Market on Texas 326, where a man later identified as a transient from Kentucky refused to leave when asked by store employees, Davis said.
Davis said the man attacked McKeon after he approached to ask him to leave.
“You hear the word senseless crime but this is really a classic example,” the sheriff said.
A bystander and off-duty Beaumont police officer attempted to stop the assault when the suspect pulled the Sour Lake officer’s gun and threatened them, the sheriff said. He then broke out the window of the police cruiser and fled the scene.
Officers deployed spike strips on Texas 326 in Kountze, stopping the vehicle. The driver fled on foot into the woods. He was spotted at daybreak, Davis said, and taken into custody.
Bradley Joseph Pruitt, 45, has been charged with aggravated assault on a public servant, aggravated assault, evading arrest, unlawful possession of a firearm and taking a weapon from an officer. The Kentucky man is being held on bonds totaling $4 million.
He is wanted on a warrant in New Mexico for assault of a peace officer, Davis said.
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©2019 the Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, Texas)