Iowa Chief Seriously Injured While Deploying Spike Strip to End Pursuit of Garbage Truck

An eastern Iowa police chief is hospitalized after his vehicle was struck by a garbage truck allegedly driven by a stalking suspect trying to elude police.

An eastern Iowa police chief is hospitalized after his vehicle was struck by a garbage truck allegedly driven by a stalking suspect trying to elude police.

Buffalo Police Chief T.J. Behning was trying to deploy spike strips behind his vehicle to end the pursuit when his vehicle was struck head-on by the truck and it slammed into him.

Two men were taken into custody at the scene. One suspect, 20-year-old Logan Jeffery Shoemaker, faces numerous charges from the incident, including attempted murder, RadioIowa reports.

Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane says a pursuit began when Davenport police tried to take one of the two men into custody regarding a stalking incident. He says a pickup truck being pursued was driven by 20-year-old Logan Jeffery Shoemaker. It collided with a garbage truck in Davenport. Lane says Shoemaker then took control of the garbage truck after threatening its driver.

The chief’s wife posted the following on Facebook:

Tj is out of surgery. He has two broken legs which are not their concern at this time. Infection is the major concern. The leg suffered a lot of damage and has a lot of debris in it. They spent over an hour in the ER and 5 more hours in the OR cleaning it out. He has severed the nerve which allows him to raise his foot. His calf muscle was also torn off. He lost the skin on the front side of his leg and so he will need skin grafts. He will have 3 more surgeries this week at least to clean the wound out and look at repairing the leg. His foot on the “good” leg is all stitched up and they think should heal just fine. His head has some stitches but looks good too. The road to recovery will be long but that we can handle. He is here and that’s all that counts. We sit in the hospital tonight with our hearts full of love and a greater appreciation for the community we live in.

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