Massachusetts State Police have arrested a man after he fled a traffic stop and pushed a state trooper into traffic in the process, all caught on the officer's dashcam.
The trooper had approached the motorcycle driver on foot after noticing he had been operating the vehicle erratically on the highway, according to the police department. The officer then asked the driver, 19-year-old Colin James Webb, to "turn off the bike's engine and dismount," but Webb "repeatedly refused to comply," turning the bike's ignition on and off again.
Video shows as Webb drives ahead despite the trooper standing in front of his motorcycle. The officer was pushed into the traffic ahead, narrowly avoiding being hit by a pickup truck passing through the intersection. Webb then fled through a side road.
Webb was arrested on July 7, two days after the incident, and charged with 12 counts including assault and battery on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, refusing to identify himself to police, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and other traffic violations.
The day of Webb's arrest, another driver assaulted a different Massachusetts office.
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Hernan Aybar Romero was wanted for a multitude of vehicle violations when an officer pulled him over July 7. But upon stopping, the trooper determined the 19-year-old had four outstanding arrest warrants, including charges of trafficking 100 grams or more of heroin/morphine/opium/fentanyl.
Authorities say Aybar Romero became violent after exiting his vehicle and assaulted the trooper while being put into handcuffs. The suspect was then able to re-enter his car and speed off.
The trooper was later treated and released from a local hospital as authorities tried to track down the suspect. He was found in an apartment complex four days later on July 11 and is now held pending arraignment on 10 different charges, some of which are similar to Webb's charges.
"These incidents were brazen, and deliberately violent assaults perpetrated by motivated offenders on public servants who were engaged in their duties to protect our roads, our communities, our citizens, and our visitors," said Colonel John Mawn Jr., superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police. "We work very hard to ensure that violence directed against any victim – police officer or civilian – is answered with a swift and thorough response, and that was exactly what was done in these two investigations."
