Robert Allen, Detroit Free Press
Published 1:46 p.m. ET Nov. 23,
A driver fleeing officers this morning “deliberately ran down” a deputy who’d just deployed stop sticks on a state highway, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
Eric Overall, 50, died of homicide by blunt force trauma, according to an autopsy. He’d set the tire-deflating devices at about 12:31 a.m. on the southbound side of M-15 at Seymour Lake Road in Brandon Township. And he was “well off the roadway” when the driver swerved to hit him, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
The suspect, a 22-year-old man from Macomb Township, had been fleeing police after he’d been at the Lapeer County Sheriff’s Office headquarters, where “his actions and threats there led to the pursuit,” according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
He’s being held at Macomb County Jail and has four prior convictions for marijuana possession and one for resisting and obstructing police.
Deputy Overall of Genesee County was recently married and has one adult son, according to the sheriff’s office. Funeral arrangements are pending, and a GoFundMe account was set up to help Overall’s family.