Man suspected of backing car into gas pump later punches Baker City Police officer, security guard at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center

Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald, Ore.
·3 min read

Apr. 6—A Boise man is in the Baker County Jail on multiple charges, including assaulting a peace officer, after he twice hit a Baker City Police officer in the face during an altercation early today at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City.

Andrew Lane Peterman, 36, is also charged with fourth-degree assault, second-degree criminal mischief and second-degree disorderly conduct.

Peterman is accused of hitting Officer Mark Powell and a security guard at the hospital, said Baker City Police Sgt. Wayne Chastain.

Both Powell and the security guard were evaluated at the hospital and released early this morning, Chastain said.

Chastain, who has worked for the Baker City Police for 20 years, said it's quite rare for a local officer to be assaulted by a suspect.

"We really don't see this a lot," Chastain said. "It's an anomaly. The community overall respects what we're trying to do here."

The incident started about 12:18 a.m. when police received a call about a vehicle backing into a gas pump at the Jackson's Food Mart, 500 Campbell St.

Chastain said Powell arrived first, followed almost immediately by Officer Rand Weaver.

Peterman, the suspected driver of the 2005 Honda Element that struck the gas pump, initially agreed to undergo field sobriety tests, as Powell suspected that Peterman might be intoxicated, Chastain said.

But before Powell could administer the tests, Peterman said he wanted to be taken to the hospital.

A Baker City ambulance took Peterman to Saint Alphonsus, where he was evaluated and released, Chastain said.

But Peterman refused to leave the hospital, and in the ensuing altercation he punched the security guard, Chastain said.

Powell used his Taser to try to subdue Peterman, who continued to fight, punching Powell twice in the face before Powell arrested him.

Peterman was evaluated again before being taken to the jail, Chastain said.

The situation was particularly challenging for Powell because it happened in the hospital, with doctors, nurses and other civilians present.

"That increases the risk of the situation for sure," Chastain said.

Chastain said he didn't have any information about the extent of the damage to the gas pump. He said the Fire Department wasn't called to the scene.

Photos from the scene don't show any liquid on the ground. Chastain said gas pumps are equipped with automatic shutoff valves.

An employee at Jackson's referred questions to the company's corporate office in Idaho.

According to Idaho court records, Peterman pleaded guilty on Nov. 13, 2019, to aggravated assault and use of a deadly weapon in commission of a felony. He was sentenced to prison in January 2020, and released from prison, on probation, less than a week ago, on April 1, 2021.

According to an online story from KTVB, a Boise TV station, Peterman, then 33, was arrested in September 2018 after police responded to reports of shots fired in a Boise neighborhood. No one was hurt in the incident.

Recommended Stories

  • Met Police Officer Convicted Of Neo-Nazi Group Membership

    Scotland Yard have claimed that after reviewing Hannam’s time as a Met Police officer they have found no evidence of extremist ideology influencing his actions.

  • Mysterious disappearance of hog farm worker in North Carolina leads to murder charge

    The search for the worker’s body continues, police said.

  • Toddler wanders from home into storm drain tunnel and drowns, Pennsylvania police say

    He was found after a two-hour search.

  • Inmate fatally stabs Georgia sheriff's deputy, officials say

    Another deputy was injured during the incident, which took place as officials moved the inmate from one part of the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center to another.

  • Woman shot dead by Miami-Dade police during eviction at Brickell apartment, cops say

    A woman was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon by Miami-Dade police officers after she fired on them while they served an eviction at a Brickell high-rise apartment building, the agency said.

  • Body of missing pregnant woman Dianna Brice found in wooded lot in Southwest Philadelphia; boyfriend still missing

    Dianna’s boyfriend Justin Smith is still missing and considered to be a person of interest.

  • Pregnant mom shot and killed while going to Easter celebration, Texas family says

    “I said, ‘Oh, Lord, please don’t take her.’ But she was already gone by the time they told me.”

  • 'Bo Snerdley' sounds off on Democrats 'pandering' to Black voters in Georgia

    'Rush Limbaugh Show' producer James Golden tells 'Fox News Primetime' that Democrats' claims of racism themselves are racist.

  • Fraudster jailed for helping speeding drivers avoid fines through scam faking police letters

    Hamid Alhendi, from Barnet, north London, faked almost 300 police documents.

  • Man sentenced to prison for helping wife fake her own death

    Authorities launched a two-day search and rescue for Julie Wheeler after her husband said she fell from an overlook at New River Gorge National Park.

  • Navy hospital corpsman killed at Maryland base after shooting two people nearby, officials say

    The victims are in critical condition, officials said.

  • Police: Man kills 3, himself at daughter's birthday in NYC

    A man shot and killed three people Monday night at a New York City apartment where a birthday party was being held for his 9-year-old daughter, police said. Joseph McCrimons killed the mother of his child and two of her daughters before killing himself, police said. NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said McCrimons, 46, had been in a relationship with his child's mother, Rasheeda Barzey, for 20 years.

  • '"We want justice!' Salvadoran woman killed in Mexican police custody is buried

    Victoria Salazar, the Salvadoran woman killed in Mexican police custody in the Caribbean beach resort of Tulum and whose death prompted calls for justice from the presidents of El Salvador and Mexico, was laid to rest in a somber ceremony on Sunday. The attorney general's office of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo on Saturday charged the one female and three male police officers who had detained Salazar with femicide, or the killing of a woman because of her gender. "The events occurred last Saturday, March 27 ... when the victim was detained by the police officers and, after being subjected to excessive and disproportionate force, likely prompting the death of the foreign woman," the attorney general's office said.

  • US Army says it needs to 'regain dominance' in the Arctic, but it's still figuring out what it needs to do it

    The Army's Arctic skills have "atrophied," the top general in Alaska told Insider in March. Now the service is moving quickly to rebuild them.

  • 'Stupid' for companies to engage in politics -McConnell

    "I'm not talking about political contributions," McConnell clarified, one day after telling corporations to "stay out of politics." "I'm talking about taking a position on a highly incendiary issue like this and punishing a community or a state because you don't like a particular law that passed. I just think it's stupid."Major Georgia employers Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines have spoken out against the law signed by Governor Brian Kemp, and Major League Baseball pulled the 2021 All-Star Game out of the state over the law strengthening identification requirements for absentee ballots and making it a crime to offer food or water to voters waiting in line.Trump spent months after losing his re-election bid falsely claiming that his defeat was the result of widespread fraud. He failed in dozens of legal challenges. Nonetheless, lawmakers in 47 states this year have introduced 361 bills imposing new restrictions on voting, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The Georgia law brought a backlash from some U.S. companies with strong ties to the state.Coca-Cola Co Chief Executive James Quincey called the law "unacceptable" and a "step backwards." Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said: "The entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie: that there was widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 election."Independent reviews have repeatedly shown that voter fraud is rare in the United States, and state and federal probes found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election which the Republican Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.Corporate America has long thrown its political muscle behind Republican candidates and office-holders, often funneling more campaign contributions to conservative candidates than Democratic ones.

  • She thought she was passing a kidney stone. Then she had a baby in the toilet.

    Melissa Surgecoff said she had no idea she was pregnant when she gave birth to her son in a toilet on March 8.

  • More male sex enhancement supplements are recalled because of unlisted ingredients

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found another company’s male sexual enhancement supplements could be unsafe for some and has instituted a recall.

  • Joss Whedon threatened to harm Gal Gadot's career if she didn't say the lines he wrote for 'Justice League,' report says

    The Hollywood Reporter's sources say Whedon also made disparaging comments about "Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins.

  • Bryson DeChambeau's fellow PGA pros can't stop smiling as they watch him demolish the sport

    Bryson DeChambeau's mission to break golf is more popular within the sport than you might think.

  • Georgia Governor Slams MLB for Moving All-Star Game to Colorado Despite Similar Voting Laws

    Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Tuesday blasted Major League Baseball’s decision to pull the 2021 All-Star game from Atlanta over a new voting law and relocate the game to Colorado, which has some similar and even more restrictive voting laws. On Friday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement that after “thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance” he had decided that the “best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft.” Manfred said MLB “fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.” According to the Associated Press, the MLB plans to move the game to Denver’s Coors Field. “Georgia has 17 days of in-person early voting including two optional Sundays, Colorado has 15,” Kemp said in an appearance on Fox News. “So what I’m being told, they also have a photo ID requirement. So it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.” While Georgia requires identification for all in-person and absentee voting, Colorado law requires identification for in-person voting and first-time mail-in voters may be required to include a copy of their ID with their ballot. After first-time mail-in votes, Colorado uses signature matching for absentee ballots. Georgia voters without ID can use the last four digits of their social security number, a utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or another government document with their name and address on it, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office. Colorado automatically sends absentee ballots to all registered voters; Georgia sends the ballots only upon request in order to prevent sending ballots to the wrong address or to those no longer eligible to vote. Kemp also called President Biden’s appearance at the NCAA championship game in Indiana “so hypocritical” as the governor said the state is “the birthplace for the photo ID requirement.” MLB moved the All-Star game after Biden told ESPN that he would “strongly support” moving the July 13 game because of the law he described as “Jim Crow on steroids.”