At 1 a.m. on July 18th Deputy Elliott was on her way home from work. As a King county sheriff’s deputy, she has a take home marked squad car. Upon driving through the city of Auburn she noticed a multi-vehicle pile up and was flagged down by citizens. Deputy Elliott quickly began checking on all citizens involved in the accident to check on their well-being. She called into dispatch for backup to the scene. While ensuring everyone’s safety deputy Elliott noticed a clearly intoxicated man yelling and creating a scene at the site of the accident. She was still waiting for backup to arrive to the accident site but quickly made the decision to detain him for his safety as well as everyone’s safety at the crash site.
At the point of being detained the intoxicated man decided to fight back. Unbeknownst to deputy Elliott, the intoxicated man had a previous record that would greatly impact his rash decisions to resist arrest. At the point of detaining the man in order to comply with safety at the scene, deputy Elliott had not yet had the opportunity to run the man’s information. He had a warrant out for his arrest and was previously arrested for driving under the influence of a controlled substance. He had also been previously charged for safety compliance violations as well as for driving on a suspended license. The man decided to place deputy Elliott in a headlock and begin fighting with her when she attempted to detain him at the scene of the accident.
Five local teenagers saw the fight between Deputy Elliott and the intoxicated man take place. They decided to go above and beyond by helping to detain the man. These heroic efforts did not go unnoticed. The fight between the man and Elliott could have turned out much worse had these helpful teenagers not stepped in. The deputy walked away with only some minor cuts and bruises, the man was detained and charged for driving under the influence as well as felony assault of an officer. King County Sheriff’s Department did not want this good deed to go unnoticed so they awarded these civilian heroes with the “Medal of Heroism” award. It had only been given one other time. This award is given to recognize community members who do extraordinary things according to Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht. Darrell Swilley (16), Isaiha Sansaver (17), Dominic Sansaver (19), Kai Tavares (18) and Tyran Powell (18). The department took to social media to also post pictures from the award ceremony and to publicly thank these five teenagers for their outstanding acts of bravery. They were thanked for jumping in and aiding deputy Elliott and possibly even saving her life during her struggle with the intoxicated man.
