Alleged drunk driver hits sheriff’s patrol unit

A Pottawatomie County sheriff’s deputy suffered minor injuries overnight Tuesday when an alleged drunk driver struck his patrol car while he was sitting idle off the roadway along SH 3.  The accident occurred about 2 a.m. near the Pottawatomie and Seminole county line. Deputy Eric Fletcher, who was on duty in his 2005 Chevrolet Impala patrol unit, was pulled off the roadway onto a grassy area, with the vehicle’s running lights illuminated, Sheriff Mike Booth said.

He was there to await the arrival of a Seminole County sheriff’s deputy, who was meeting him for a prisoner transport, he said.  Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Troy Thompson worked the accident and said Fletcher’s patrol car was well off the shoulder and roadway when a car traveling eastbound on SH 3 failed to negotiate the curve that turns southbound toward Seminole.

That car, a Chrysler 300 driven by David Dustin Bellew, 28, Seminole, stuck the driver’s side rear quarter panel of the patrol car and continued after impact until the vehicle hit a fence, Thompson said.

After the collision, Booth said the deputy was able to get out of the patrol car to check on the other driver.  Bellew, who was treated for minor injuries at the scene and refused further medical transport, was arrested at the scene, the trooper said.

He was booked into the Pottawatome County Public Safety Center on a complaint of driving under the influence, Thompson said.
Booth said Fletcher was sitting behind the wheel and heard the car coming toward him before the impact knocked the deputy over to the passenger side.

As a precautionary measure, Fletcher was taken to Unity Health Center, where he was treated for minor injuries and released, the trooper said.
Booth said Fletcher would take a few days off before returning to work.

Police have new crime-fighting tool

Video taken from a law enforcement officer’s dashboard captures a traffic stop from several feet away. But a tiny new invention is taking the camera right up to the driver. Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Wolfe demonstrates his new, wireless Muvi Micro DV Camcorder that he clips on the front of his uniform.

At about 2 inches in length, it’s advertised as the world’s smallest, wireless camcorder.

A memory card, the size of a fingernail, captures up to 5 hours of video.

Wolfe says it also captured a burglary suspect lying to his face.

“(He said) ‘I’ve been at home. I haven’t left the house.’ We said, ‘well we’ve got a piece of evidence that suggests you weren’t',” Wolfe recalls. “He confessed to the crime on my camera.”

Sheriff Mike Booth says dashboard cameras cost $5,000, however, these camcorders cost only $100.

“The D.A. even said ‘if there’s any way we can find the money, we want you guys to have these so that will help us in our prosecutions immensely.’”

Having close-up video has already disproved one man’s claim that he was assaulted by a deputy.

When the Sheriff said he would review tape of the incident, Booth says the man responded with “Oh, well I’ve been meaning to talk to my doctor about the medication they prescribed because sometimes I say things that I don’t mean to say.”

Whether it’s separating truth from fiction or simply capturing a suspect’s description, these small cameras are making a big impact.

“It’s a safety factor,” Wolfe says. “I’m just glad we have them.”

There are eight police departments in Oklahoma using these cameras, as well.

Burglary interrupted: Man held at gunpoint, abducted from his home

The Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an abduction after a local homeowner interrupted a burglary at his rural Shawnee home Tuesday.

Undersheriff Dave Balleweg said the man returned home about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and noticed an unfamiliar car in the driveway, but he figured it might be someone visiting a relative who also lives at the home.

The man went inside and ran into a female in a hallway. They exchanged words as he told the woman he lived there.
“Then she said, ‘Babe, somebody is here,’” Balleweg said, and a man appeared from another room with a gun.
The suspects threw the man onto the floor and took his wallet and cell phone, and stole his computer, the undersheriff said.
Then the female “shoves the gun into his mouth,” Balleweg said, as they threatened him harm, forced the man to tell them where the valuables were in the house by starting a countdown.

The suspects abducted the man from his home, wrapping his head in a blanket and placing him in the floorboard of his own 2010 Toyota SUV. The female suspect drove him in that vehicle and the male in a suspect vehicle, described to be a brown “box-shaped” car, possibly a Lincoln Town Car, Balleweg said.

The suspects drove the man to the area of 45th and Bethel Road, where they disabled his vehicle and left him.
The man was able to walk to a home and seek help.

The white male suspect was described as being about 6 feet tall, with red hair and a pointy nose, and weighing about 175 pounds.
The white female was described as being 5 feet, four inches tall, weighing about 125 pounds.

Both suspects were wearing black hooded shirts and blue jeans. The homeowner was roughed up during the ordeal, but suffered no major injuries, he said. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the sheriff’s office, 273-1727.

Deputy injured in crash while responding to fatal pedestrian accident

A Pottawatomie County sheriff’s deputy was injured in a crash Monday afternoon while he was responding to the scene of a pedestrian accident that resulted in the death of that victim. The first accident involving the pedestrian was reported about 11:52 a.m. in the 8400 block of Brangus Road. About five minutes later, the accident involving the sheriff’s deputy was reported at Garrett’s Lake Road and Kickapoo Street.
Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Capt. Travis Palmer was driving a Chevrolet Tahoe sheriff’s unit when that accident occurred. Palmer, who was eastbound on Garrett’s Lake Road, was en route to the Brangus Road accident to assist another deputy, said Shawnee Police Lt. Tom Pringle.
At the intersection, his unit collided with a Ford Mustang driven southbound on Kickapoo Street by a 17-year-old driver, Pringle said. Her name was not being released.

Palmer, who was trapped in the wreckage, was extricated by Shawnee firefighters and taken by REACT EMS ambulance to Unity Health Center, North Campus. There, he was treated for facial lacerations and a vertebrae injury, Pringle said, then was transferred by helicopter ambulance to an Oklahoma City hospital for further treatment.

Pringle said the teen’s parents took her by private vehicle to Midwest City Regional Hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries.
Shawnee Patrol Officer Jay Keehn worked the scene and police are investigating, Pringle said, with Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers assisting with measurements and diagrams of the collision.

At Unity’s ER, fellow deputies and police officers from various agencies arrived to check on Palmer, said Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth.

Booth, also at the hospital, said Palmer was traveling “Code 3,” at the time of the accident, which meant he had activated lights and sirens in response to the emergency call.
“He was on the way to help someone,” the sheriff said. “Sometimes these things happen — we know that when we’re putting on the badge.”
Booth said Palmer was awake at the hospital and was concerned for others as he asked Booth about the other driver, as well as the pedestrian he was trying to go help.

Other deputies and state troopers worked the pedestrian accident on Brangus Road, where a man who was getting out of his vehicle was hit by that vehicle and reportedly died from his injuries, according to scanner reports.

That accident was determined to be on trust land, so Sac and Fox Nation Police were investigating that accident. No other information or the identity of the person involved in the fatal accident could be obtained from Sac and Fox tribal police as phone messages were not returned.