Thurston County deputy fights with DUI suspect who grabbed her gun at crash scene

“He probably had 120 pounds on her, and he’s a brown belt in jujitsu as well,” said Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders. “You can see more than a decade of training kick in for her – how she handled that, it’s a 10/10 across the board from start to finish.”

Sanders emphasized that the deputy used the police training principles of “time, distance, and shielding” to slow down the conflict, but when she was attacked, she protected her firearm from being taken out of its holster.

“You’ll hear people say ‘should have shot him, should have shot him’ – there’s not really an opportunity in there once he started the assault because the one thing you don’t is for him to have that gun out,” Sanders said. “My opinion is that should be a national model for how to defend your firearm in a fight; every police academy in the country could use that video for training.”