A La Center police officer was treated as a precaution at a hospital after a woman drove in his direction, forcing him to jump out of the way.
Clark County Deputy Sgt. Brent Waddell identified the driver as 55-year-old Krystell Crichton. She was arrested on a felony warrant charge and misdemeanor hit-and-run, but not for the incident with the officer in La Center, Waddell said.
The officer was patrolling in the area of Northwest La Center Road around 6 a.m. Thursday when he spotted a suspicious vehicle exiting Timmen Road. The vehicle was over the line for a stop sign, and its hazard lights were flashing. The driver took a wide left turn onto La Center Road, said La Center Police Chief Marc Denney.
The officer pulled over the vehicle near Northwest Eagle Crest Drive.
“She didn’t want to be bothered,” he said. “She said she was delivering papers, her boss was going to get upset.”
The woman’s restlessness increased, and the officer returned to his vehicle to retrieve information. That’s when the woman turned her car around so it was facing the patrol SUV. At the same time, the officer got out of his vehicle and got trapped between the two vehicles.
“He was waving her down, telling her to stop,” he said.
But the woman drove toward the officer. He jumped up to avoid being hit, but a side mirror is believed to have struck his knee, Denney said.
“It was very slow speed,” he said.
The officer may have some swelling, but he’s otherwise OK. The patrol vehicle was not struck by the getaway driver’s car.
An ambulance and deputies were dispatched to the scene around 6:20 a.m. Within two hours, deputies informed the La Center Police Department that Crichton had been located.
Deputies responded to the report of another crash around 7 a.m. at 259th Street and 72nd Avenue. Crichton had crashed into a car and fled on foot, Waddell said. The sheriff’s office dispatched its canines, and Crichton was found a short time later, he said.
The second crash is the basis for Crichton’s arrest on suspicion of misdemeanor hit-and-run. The La Center police are handling their own investigation into the incident involving its officer.
Deputies told Chief Denney that Crichton has had prior run-ins with law enforcement and likely didn’t want to go back to jail.
Officers planned to obtain a search warrant for Crichton’s vehicle to pursue a charge of assault of an officer, according to the police chief.
