A Baxter County sheriff’s deputy was injured when a motorcyclist fleeing from law enforcement drove into him early Sunday morning, according to a news release.
The pursuit began in the Pigeon Creek area shortly before 12:30 a.m., the sheriff’s office said, when a deputy attempted to stop Austin Douglas Potts, 23, of Oakland as he traveled south on Arkansas Highway 201 toward Mountain Home without a working tail light on his motorcycle.
After fleeing south at approximately 65 mph with the deputy in pursuit, Potts approached a road block at the intersection of County Road 28 and Jade Lane, where another officer, Corporal Craig Gates, had set up the road block. Although Potts stopped temporarily, he refused commands to get off the motorcycle and attempted to maneuver it around Gates, the sheriff’s office said.
The pursuing deputy, Craig Kocka, used a Taser on Potts without effect, and Potts accelerated, striking Gates in the “lower extremity” and causing him to fall down.
The sheriff’s office said the motorcyclist was lost in a subdivision near Baxter Regional Medical Center until a man on foot near the hospital parking garage matching the description was detained a short time later. The motorcycle was recovered near the parking garage.
Potts was on probation with Arkansas Community Corrections and holds a restricted license that requires an interlock device, the sheriff’s office said.
Gates, the injured deputy, was taken to Baxter Regional Medical Center and released.
Potts, who was taken to the Baxter County jail, faces felony charges of second-degree battery, aggravated assault, fleeing and probation violation, along with four other misdemeanor charges. He was being held without bail because of his probation violation, the sheriff’s office said.