Florida Police Officer Struck by Sheriff's Cruiser During Response

POLK COUNTY, Florida -- A Haines City Police Officer Brad Webster was accidentally struck by a Polk County Sheriff's Office while he was responding to a domestic violence incident last week.

Law enforcement responded to the Sunset Palm Hotel in Davenport overnight Thursday after receiving the call, according to WFLA-TV.

Authorities said that a sergeant witnessed a 15-year old boy holding his 18-year old girlfriend by the hair, who is seven months pregnant. “He had been beating her up. He choked her, he bit her, he pushed her. And when the sergeant arrived on scene, she demanded that she release her,” said Polk County Sheriff’s Spokesman Carrie Horstman.

The sergeant said the teenager was combative when she tried to separate the pair and restrain him and called for backup. Webster and other Polk County Sheriff’s Office personnel responded to the scene. “He jumped a fence to get into the parking lot to respond to the scene,” Horstman told WFLA-TV. “Once he did that, he apparently was in the path of one of our lieutenants who was arriving at the scene as well. It sort of happened all at once. It happened very fast. I believe the front of the lieutenant’s truck hit him to the point where he fell to the ground.”

Webster was treated and released from the hospital after the incident but returned to the hospital the following day as injuries from the crash lingered.

The teenager is facing eight charges in total, including battery on a pregnant individual, resisting arrest, assault and battery on a law enforcement officer.

“We are proud of Officer Brad Webster’s response to the domestic violence incident that resulted in his injury,” Haines City Interim Police Chief Loyd Stewart wrote in a statement. “When we hear a call that a fellow officer is involved in a violent situation, regardless if it is from another agency, we respond.”