A 64-year-old Cheyenne man faces an attempted aggravated vehicular homicide charge, accused of striking and injuring a Laramie County Sheriff’s Office deputy with his vehicle during a wild Monday evening traffic stop.
The suspect, identified as Calvin Alexander, has also been booked into the Laramie County Detention Center on charges of interference, felony property destruction, driving under the influence, aggravated fleeing, and eluding, the sheriff’s office reports.
At around 6:40 p.m. Monday, deputies were dispatched to a report of a suspicious vehicle in the 10000 block of East Four Mile Road and Buckboard Road near Cheyenne, the agency reports.
There, deputies observed Alexander’s black Kia Soul and activated emergency lights and sirens on their patrol vehicles.
Alexander refused to stop for deputies and continued driving at a slow rate of speed, said the sheriff’s department.
Deputies then followed Alexander on Four Mile Road, where he reportedly made several U-turns in the middle of the road, refused to pull over, and drove past them.
Kept Resisting
That’s when the suspect elevated the charges against him, the sheriff’s office reports.
“Calvin briefly stopped, and deputies exited their vehicles and attempted to contact Calvin,” the report says. “Calvin accelerated and swerved into a deputy, pinning him to his vehicle, causing injury.”
As more deputies arrived at the scene, Alexander allegedly continued driving in circles.
Stop strips were deployed, flattening tires on the Kia, and Alexander used the car as a weapon again to ram into a parked patrol vehicle.
Even with flat tires, Alexander attempted to drive away when Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak pinned the Kia with his patrol truck.
Alexander still refused to exit his vehicle, so the windows were broken out of the Kia, and an officer with the Cheyenne Police Department shot pepper balls into the vehicle, the sheriff’s department reports.
Calvin eventually got out of his vehicle and continued to resist, but was hit with a Taser and taken into custody.
‘A Really Bad Situation'
Along with suspects threatening them with weapons, the danger of being hit by vehicles is a very real concern for law enforcement officers, said Frank Groth, a retired career officer who lives in Gillette.
That someone would deliberately try and hurt or kill an officer with a vehicle, as Alexander is accused of, isn’t common but is not unheard of, he said.
“It does happen, there’s no doubt,” Groth told Cowboy State Daily. “You can look at the law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty every year, and there are a number of instances where they’re assaulted by a vehicle.”
He recalled a family friend who served with the California Highway Patrol who was hit by a car while on a freeway investigating a crash.
“That one wasn’t deliberate, but it still injured him very seriously and he had to be medically retired,” Groth said.
The account outlined in the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office statement “sounds like this was a deliberate act, and if that’s the clear intent, then yes” a charge of attempted murder or vehicular homicide is appropriate, he said.
“Not knowing how much time was actually involved, it could’ve been only a matter of a couple of seconds,” he said about how quickly a situation can escalate. “The deputy might not have had any real time to react.
“If that person’s deliberately steering (a car) toward an officer, that’s a really bad situation."
Scott Schwebke can be reached at scott@cowboystatedaily.com and Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
