Officer Attacked During Arrest-Sustains Injury

On January 7, 2015 at 1:40 pm one of our Santa Cruz Police Officers was on regular patrol in the area of Pacific Ave and Center St. The officer noticed our suspect was in the middle of the round-about. The officer witnessed the suspect acting strangely and attempted to pull a motorcyclist off of his motorcycle as it traveled through the intersection. As soon as the officer contacted the suspect, he became extremely uncooperative and confrontational.

The suspect attacked the officer during the contact and tried to gouge the officer's eye out. The officer was able to fight off the attack, call for assistance, and deployed his Taser. Unfortunately, the Taser was not effective and the suspect fled from the officer. Additional officers responded and found the suspect a couple blocks away near Beach St. The suspect continued to be confrontational and uncooperative toward the backup officers. The backup officers deployed an additional Taser, which was effective. The backup officers were able to take the suspect safely into custody. Arrested was:

Robert Craig 33 year old, Transient

 

The officer sustained significant injuries to his eye as the suspect attempted to gouge the eye of the officer during the struggle.  The officer was treated and released from Dominican Hospital and will need to follow up with an eye care specialist to determine the extent of damage.

The suspect, Robert Craig has one prior arrest in Santa Cruz in November 2014 for possession of methamphetamine. He had a current warrant out for his arrest for failure to appear on this previous offense. Following the arrest, Mr. Craig was transported to Dominican Hospital for treatment of minor injuries and later booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail for felony battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, attempt mayhem, and threats on a police officer.

It is not known when the Officer will return to work.