Deputies injured after suspect attempts escape in patrol unit

A local man is charged with felony counts of escape from arrest or detention, larceny of an automobile, aircraft or other motor vehicle, and battery/assault and battery on a police officer after being detained by authorities and then jumping into the front seat, wrecking the vehicle in front of Blue Ribbon Chevrolet.

Timothy D. Stimson, 31, who has addresses listed in both Sallisaw and Muldrow, was charged Jan. 11 in Sequoyah County District Court and is now scheduled for a 9 a.m. March 1 felony disposition docket before Associate District Judge Kyle Waters.

Sallisaw Police officer Andrew Edwards reported on Jan. 6 just after 10 a.m., officers with the Sallisaw Police Department assisted Sequoyah County Sheriff’s deputies with a traffic stop at 1700 S. Kerr Blvd.

Officers were told upon initiation of the traffic stop that the front seat passenger (Stimson) had fled from the vehicle on foot. Stimson was reportedly known to have several warrants for his arrest, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Edwards said he, along with deputies Trevor Charlton and Daniel Whitus, chased Stimson on foot until he was apprehended. Whitus then escorted Stimson to his patrol unit, secured him in handcuffs and seated him in the back of the unit. When Whitus shut the back door and walked toward the back of the vehicle, he reportedly heard the horn sound.

Whitus opened the back door and Charlton opened the front passenger door, gaining access to the inside of the vehicle where Stimson was found in the driver’s seat. When deputies tried to restrain Stimson, he slipped his hands from behind his back to the front of him where he was able to operate the police unit, according to the affidavit.

Stimson then put the vehicle in drive, steering it to the east side of the road and entering back into the roadway, crossing the entire 5-lane highway and driving in a northwest direction, until driving the patrol unit over the west edge of Highway 59 on S. Kerr Blvd. He reportedly wrecked the vehicle into a ditch in front of Blue Ribbon Chevrolet, according to the affidavit.

D eputy Galen Irvin advised communications the patrol vehicle was reportedly stolen and wrecked by Stimson. Sallisaw police returned to the scene where Edwards reported Stimson was still seated in the driver’s seat. He was removed and placed on the ground where he was un-cuffed and re-cuffed by authorities, and placed in leg shackles before being transported to the Sallisaw Police Department.

According to the affidavit, Charlton received a busted lip, laceration to the right side of his head and was bleeding from his hands and right knee. Whitus received a laceration above his left eye, a reddened spot on the left side of his forehead and a cut on his left leg.