Officer Lucia Wade Critically Injured

By CHRIS SMITH

When the dreadful commotion began on Santa Rosa Avenue that Sunday nine days ago, Andy Brewster was inside Steel Deli & Liquor, buying a can of beer.

Brewster is a 47-year-old trucker who came to Sonoma County recently to care for his ailing mother. He heard a woman shout, “Halt! Freeze!” and he looked out the store to see a uniformed police officer get hit by a car and thrown into the air as she chased a man across the four-lane avenue.

“It was terrible,” Brewster said. Next he saw that the fleeing man was heading toward the Steel Deli parking lot. I watched the store’s security video on Monday and saw Brewster run to intercept the man.

Brewster, who’s 6-2 and 200 pounds, stood in the smaller guy’s path and told him, “Where do you think you’re going?” Then he grabbed the man, took him down and pinned his arms behind him. Read more…

source: google.com

By NATHAN HALVERSON

A Santa Rosa police officer was struck by a car and seriously injured as she chased a suspect on foot across Santa Rosa Avenue on Sunday shortly after 5:30 p.m.

A black BMW hit the officer, who smashed into the windshield and was thrown several feet to the pavement. She lay unresponsive with a severe head injury, according to eyewitnesses.

The officer, who police refused to identify, was taken by ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

The chase began in the parking lot of Denny’s after the officer recognized a man wanted in connection with a felony crime, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department.

The suspect fled, leaving the Denny’s lot and running across the Chevron gas station where he entered traffic on Santa Rosa Avenue near the Colgan Avenue intersection.

The officer pursued him. She had nearly crossed the busy street when she was hit by the northbound BMW. Read more…