Long List Of Charges For Man Accused Of Dragging Officer
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (CBS4) - A man accused of dragging a police officer during a brief chase last week now faces a series of charges.
Justin Wayne Lamb, 29, on Wednesday was charged with attempted first-degree assault, second-degree assault and kidnapping.
Police in Parker conducted a traffic stop about 1:23 a.m. last Thursday at Parker Road and Valley Hi. The driver, Kent Scott Williams, was taken into custody after a search returned several driving restraints.
After Williams was arrested, officers saw Lamb hiding in the rear seat floorboard of the vehicle under miscellaneous items. Officers tried to talk to him but that's when an altercation broke out.
Lamb reportedly jumped into the driver's seat and tried to drive away. One officer ran to the driver's side door and tried to turn off the ignition. Police say that's when Lamb accelerated and started to drive north on Parker Road. The officer was dragged by the vehicle over the center median into the southbound lanes, through a fence, down an embankment until the car came to a stop.
Lamb started running away from the scene. A woman inside the car, Lexi Erwin, 18, was detained. A perimeter was set up and Arapahoe County deputies responded with a K-9 to help look for Lamb. After a short time the K-9 found Lamb hiding in a tree and he was arrested.
The female officer was seriously injured and was treated at a hospital. District Attorney George Brauchler spoke with CBS4 about the officer.
"As you can imagine, something like this causes you to rethink your career field and to make sure you are doing everything to keep yourself safe. Not just for you, but your family also," Brauchler said. "This was unexpected. This wasn't like a SWAT situation where everybody thought they were going into a situation where they were in danger. This was the opposite of that. This was a situation that we thought this was relatively routine and it turned into something far more worse."
Because of sentence enhancers, Lamb could face up to 24 years in prison. His preliminary hearing is expected to be set May 9.
