By MELINDA WILLIAMS
WYTHE COUNTY – A Wythe County deputy was airlifted to a Roanoke hospital after suffering a concussion in an altercation with an Ivanhoe man Friday.
Wythe County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Keith Dunagan said Deputy Ray Danner is in stable condition at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. In addition to being treated for a concussion, he said, the officer also has dislocated fingers.
As a result of the altercation, 48-year-old James Lee Parks Jr. is being held without bond at New River Valley Regional Jail on charges of being drunk in public, resisting arrest and malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer.
The situation occurred after 9 p.m. Friday when Danner received a call in the Tyco Lane area of Ivanhoe that a subject was threatening to wound himself with a knife. Dunagan said Danner was told the subject left to go to another residence, but Danner found the subject, identified as Parks, a short time later, seated inside a pickup truck parked on Tyco Lane.
Dunagan said the officer could smell alcohol upon approaching Parks and “Parks had slurred speech,” so Danner told Parks he was under arrest and instructed Parks to exit the vehicle. As the officer was attempting to place handcuffs on Parks, Dunagan said, “Parks attacked him, shoving him into a building.”
Although Danner struck his head and hand on the building, Dunagan said Danner was able to recover enough to use pepper spray to disable Parks so he could be taken into custody with the help of another officer arriving on the scene.
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