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Deputy injured in chase
By MIKE BRASSFIELD and LEANORA MINAI ST. PETERSBURG -- A man driving a stolen Jeep Cherokee led a pack of police cars on a high-speed chase through the city Friday before deliberately ramming into a Pinellas County sheriff's deputy who was trying to stop him, authorities said.
Euler escaped the impact with only cuts and bruises. Fellow law enforcement officials, who gathered at Bayfront Medical Center fearing the worst, were relieved. "He's not hurt bad and he's going to be okay, and I'm happy to hear that," said Sheriff Everett Rice, who visited Euler in the hospital. "He risked his life to help the St. Pete police stop a fleeing felon."
It was a violent end to a 20-minute chase that began as a routine stop about a cracked windshield. Shortly after 3:30 p.m., a St. Petersburg patrol officer noticed a broken window in a black Jeep Grand Cherokee at 62nd Avenue N and Fourth Street. Officer James Knight ran the Jeep's license tag and learned that the vehicle had been reported stolen in Georgia. He pulled over the Jeep. When Williams wouldn't get out of the Jeep, Knight opened the driver's door. Williams uttered an expletive, hit his accelerator and sped south on Fourth Street, hitting Knight with his door, police said. Knight, who sustained bumps and bruises, radioed for help. Knight is the same officer who shot and killed a black youth during a traffic stop in 1996, sparking two nights of racial disturbances.
Police then chased the Jeep around the northeastern part of the city. St. Petersburg officers do not typically chase stolen cars. But they do chase drivers suspected in violent crimes, and the assault against Knight was considered a violent felony. One bystander, Janet Steinruck, 53, was stopped at a red light on 38th Avenue N at Ninth Street when she counted 13 police cars with lights and sirens chasing the Jeep. "He whizzed by us, driving very erratically around cars at a high rate of speed," Steinruck said of the Jeep's driver. "There was a high-speed chase going right through town." The Jeep went downtown, got on I-275 and headed north. At that point, a Pinellas sheriff's helicopter was tracking it from the air. So city police cars backed off from the chase, although they kept following the Jeep from a distance, said St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Doniel. The Jeep was driving along the left shoulder, passing traffic. Kenneth Euler Jr., who has been a Pinellas sheriff's deputy for 16 months, stopped his patrol car on the side of the interstate at the bottom of the 54th Avenue N on-ramp. Euler saw the Jeep coming and threw down his 3-foot-long Stop Sticks in its path. The Jeep veered sharply toward him, and Euler darted behind his car for cover, said Doniel, the police spokesman. The Jeep slammed into the car. "Our officers saw the deputy flying through the air and rolling along the ground," Doniel said. Veteran St. Petersburg officer George Reed then rammed the Jeep with his car. The Jeep flipped several times, landing upright. The Jeep then ran into a police car driven by St. Petersburg Officer B.C. Taylor. Afterward, the northbound lanes of I-275 were shut down for several hours.
Dozens of police cars converged on the scene, drawing numerous high-ranking officials from the city and county agencies. Passersby watched from the 54th Avenue overpass and news helicopters circled overhead. Euler, who never lost consciousness, was taken by ambulance to Bayfront Medical Center, where he stayed overnight for observation. He is expected to be released today. Maj. Rodney Steckel, who oversees patrol deputies for the Sheriff's Office, said Euler was in good spirits. Euler wanted to be an officer from a young age. As a teenager, he joined St. Petersburg's Police Explorer program for five years. After that, as a St. Petersburg College freshman, he joined St. Petersburg's volunteer Road Assistance Patrol. Euler worked at the Manatee County Sheriff's Office and the Clearwater Police Department before joining the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in September 2001. St. Petersburg Officer Regina Dorr, 26, attended Dixie Hollins High School with Euler and recalled his love of police work. "He used to have a scanner on all of the time," Dorr said. "We'd be hanging out and something would come across the scanner and he'd be out of there." Williams, the Jeep's driver, was arrested. Police did not know why he was in Florida. After his minor injuries were treated at Ed White Hospital, he was being questioned at St. Petersburg police headquarters Friday night. Police said they planned to charge Williams with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, grand theft auto and fleeing from police.
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