Suspect arrested after MPD sergeant dragged through parking lot

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - A suspect was arrested Wednesday after a Madison Police Department sergeant was injured last week when he was dragged through a parking lot on the city’s near east side.

An incident report from MPD stated that the suspect jumped off of a second-story apartment balcony around 11 a.m. on the 2500 block of Fairfield Place in an attempt to run away from officers who had come inside of the unit. Police positioned around the building were able to take him into custody.

“This is one of those calls that as a chief when you get it makes the hair on the back of your hair stand up,” MPD Chief Shon Barnes recounted. “People often ask me chief what keeps you up at night, well this is one of the things that keeps me up at night.”

The sergeant will head back on the job this weekend. Barnes credits the officer’s training for getting the victim to safety without escalating the situation.

“In any other police department it would have been a situation that could have been a use of deadly force, but the officer is trying to make his escape, but he can’t and so he’s drug by the vehicle several feet,” Barnes said.

According to MPD’s initial report, the sergeant was responding to a 911 call about a domestic disturbance around 8:40 a.m. in the 2400 block of Winnebago St. and caught up to the couple while at a shopping center about a half-mile away.

When the sergeant found the suspect and the victim in a parking lot, in the 2900 block of E. Washington Ave., they were together inside a vehicle, MPD explained. He managed to get the victim out of the vehicle, but he was still partially inside it when the suspect decided to drive off. The report indicated the sergeant was dragged “throughout the parking lot” before the suspect fled the scene.

Investigators say the suspect has several active warrants against him, including two for domestic battery.

The sergeant was taken to the hospital to have his injuries treated and was released.

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