“It’s a societal issue but a local issue that we have to deal with,” Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said.
Deputy Michael Profitt was hit Tuesday night at around 8 p.m. after deputies were alerted to a stolen vehicle at North Dixie Drive and Stop 8 Road, Streck said.
He said deputies initiated a traffic stop, and Profitt pulled in front of the vehicle, got out of his cruiser and began walking towards the stolen vehicle.
Dash camera and body-worn camera footage showed the stolen vehicle reverse and then drive forward, striking Profitt. Profitt fired two rounds at the driver, the sheriff said, striking the suspect in her arm.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
The woman then drove off. The sheriff’s office called Dayton, Vandalia, Butler Twp. and MetroParks police for help while the other deputies stayed at the scene to help the injured deputy. Police found the car and chased it up Interstate 75 until it stopped near mile marker 66 in Miami County.
Profitt was taken to the hospital and released Wednesday morning. The sheriff said he is recovering.
“Deputy Profitt feels like he got run over by a car,” the sheriff said. “He was hit very hard, he has numerous lacerations, a lot of road rash and luckily he is a deputy in very good shape and younger so he didn’t break any bones but he is laid up at home recovering.”
The suspect, from the Columbus area, was taken to Kettering Health Dayton. Her injuries are not life-threatening and she is expected to be released from the hospital soon, the sheriff said. Her name was not released but the sheriff said he expects that she will be facing charges soon.
Streck said said police have seen a problem with suspects running from law enforcement.
“For an individual to get shot, for one of my deputies to get run over because of a stolen vehicle is just ridiculous, and we have to figure out what to try to do to slow some of this stuff down,” he said.
Early Tuesday morning, two people were arrested after shots were fired at police during a pursuit that began in Riverside involving a stolen semi that ended in a crash and SWAT standoff in rural Indiana.
Riverside police were called around 12:05 a.m. to the 1100 block of Brandt Pike on a report of a stolen tractor-trailer. Officers found the semi on Needmore Road and attempted a traffic stop, but the driver refused to pull over, Riverside police Maj. Matthew Sturgeon said.
The semi continued onto I-75 north and at one point an occupant fired at officers during a pursuit. The chase route also included I-70.
The semi crashed around 2:15 a.m. into a ditch in Adams County, Ind. about 100 miles away. After the crash, the two suspects barricaded themselves inside the berthing cab and refused to come out, which led an Indiana State Police SWAT team to respond.
Then on Tuesday afternoon, a 24-year-old man was arrested after police said he rammed three police cruisers with a car in Dayton, which led to a pursuit that ended in Riverside. No officers were injured.
Streck said there is a lack of respect for authority, not just for law enforcement but in general and it’s translating into dangerous roadways.
“It’s not everybody, we all know it’s not a cover statement, but there just seems to be a disregard when it comes to driving vehicles at this point,” Streck said. “Speed limits, the amount of car thefts that are occurring -- whether it’s a car running outside warming up, whether it’s broken windows and hot-wired or it’s taken at gunpoint, those numbers are very high right now.
“So why it’s occurring, I don’t know, but it’s something that we have to crack down on.”
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