Felon who fled from & fought with Hemet officers arrested
UPDATE: Sunday, Mar. 10, 11 a.m. With corrections, updates, and suspect booking details.
See Original Story below.
HEMET — A felon who was arrested yesterday after first running from and then fighting with Hemet police officers was later identified as 63-year-old, Stephen Leon Washington Jr.
Online jail records indicate that after his arrest, Washington was booked into Cois Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta on suspicion of committing a felony while out on bail or early release, resisting or obstructing an officer, hit and run resulting in property damage, and battery resulting in serious injury. He remains in custody in lieu of $45,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned at an unspecified court, Mar. 13.
Original Story
HEMET — An alleged felon who tried to flee from and then fight with Hemet police officers was arrested earlier this morning, Saturday, Mar. 9. The arrest happened in the area of W. Kimball Ave. and S. Alessandro St.
LEADING THE RCNS HEADLINES:
Man leaps from I-15 overpass onto SR-91, run over by several cars
Today’s incident began around 10:30 a.m., when Hemet PD was reportedly searching for a wanted felon. An officer eventually spotted the man, described only as a black male adult, driving a vehicle in the area of Alessandro St. and Kimball Ave. When the officer tried to stop the car and its two occupants, the driver suddenly pulled into the driveway of a home in the 200 block of Kimball Ave.
As the vehicle came to a stop, the alleged suspect leapt from the driver’s seat of the car and fled on foot. The passenger, a white male adult, remained at the scene, did not try to flee, and was fully cooperative with officers.
Officers gave chase, while putting out a call for assistance, at which time other officers began converging on the area from around the city.
Moments later the officer updated that he had caught up with the fleeing man, who began fighting with the officer trying to arrest him.
The officer’s subsequent radio call for priority, emergency assistance brought more than a dozen officers flooding into the residential neighborhood with their lights flashing and sirens wailing.
Within minutes, officers updated that the combative man had been taken into custody.
The passenger of the car who remained at the scene was initially detained and questioned, but was determined to have committed no crimes and was later released without charges.
The man who was arrested was eventually transported to Hemet PD for further questioning and processing, but it was not immediately known what the alleged suspect was wanted for or what charges he is potentially facing after the violent encounter.
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Gary Rainwater photos
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Trevor Montgomery, 47, moved last year to the Intermountain area of Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for several other news organizations; including Riverside County based newspapers, Valley News, The Valley Chronicle, and Anza Valley Outlook; as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County and Mountain Echo in Shasta County.
Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back, and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)
During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations; including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, and Lake Elsinore Station; along with other locations.
Trevor’s assignments included Corrections, Patrol, DUI Enforcement, Boat and Personal Water-Craft based Lake Patrol, Off-Road Vehicle Enforcement, Problem Oriented Policing Team, and Personnel/Background Investigations. He finished his career while working as a Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigator and was a court-designated expert in child abuse and child sex-related crimes.
Trevor has been married for more than 28 years and was a foster parent to more than 60 children over 13 years. He is now an adoptive parent and his “fluid family” includes 13 children and 15 – but soon to be 16 – grandchildren.