Motorist Didn’t Stop to Think : Saving Officer’s Life ‘One of Those Things’

One of two men credited with helping to save the life of a California Highway Patrol officer who had been attacked by a motorist said Wednesday that their effort was “just one of those things.”

“I don’t know,” said Tracy Torgerson when asked why he and his companion, Timothy Donovan, had gone to the aid of officer Henry Doeding alongside the Santa Ana Freeway on Tuesday afternoon.

Torgerson, 34, of Orange, said he and Donovan were returning home from their construction jobs when they saw Doeding fighting with a man on the adjacent Chapman Avenue on-ramp.

“The guy had the officer’s baton and was beating him with it,” Torgerson said. “I just saw he was in trouble. It was just one of those things.”

Parking his truck at the end of the ramp, Torgerson and the 23-year-old Donovan, who also lives in Orange, sprinted back to where Doeding and the man were fighting on the ground.

‘I Grabbed His Legs’

“He (Donovan) grabbed the baton from the guy and I grabbed his legs to try to pull him off,” Torgerson said.

Then the assailant went for the officer’s gun. The struggle, with Torgerson and Donovan trying to subdue the motorist, “was pretty wild,” Torgerson said.

“His (Doeding’s) head was split open from front to back on the right side. If he hadn’t shot him, I don’t know what would have happened,” Torgerson added.

CHP spokesman Paul Caldwell said Wednesday that when the motorist, identified as 35-year-old Dennis Craig Maughan of Whittier, went for the gun, Doeding was afraid that he and his two rescuers were going to be shot.

During the scuffle for the gun, Doeding fired a single shot, wounding Maughan in the abdomen.

Doeding, 41, an 18-year CHP veteran, was expected to be released today from St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, where he spent a “restless Tuesday night,” Caldwell said. He said Doeding, who received 40 stitches on his scalp, may have been struck in the head as many as 15 times.

Maughan, who works as a carpenter, was in fair condition Wednesday at the UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, where he was taken Tuesday after being shot. Although he was initially booked into the hospital’s jail ward on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Caldwell said, the charges were changed Wednesday to attempted murder and bail was set at $250,000.

According to the CHP, the confrontation occurred about 4 p.m. on the southbound Chapman Avenue on-ramp to the freeway in Orange after Maughan allegedly ran a red light.

When Doeding checked the registration on the car that Maughan was driving and discovered that the vehicle had been reported stolen, he radioed for backup officers. Before they could arrive, Caldwell said, Maughan attacked Doeding.

After Donovan had wrested the baton from Maughan, Caldwell said, Maughan tried to get Doeding’s .38-caliber service revolver from its holster and the two men again wrestled on the ground. As they struggled on the on-ramp shoulder for the weapon, the officer and the suspect had a “tugging match” over the gun before Doeding fired the shot, Caldwell said.

Besides Torgerson and Donovan, there were others who stopped to help, Caldwell said. Off-duty UC Irvine nurse Janice Wolfe, 27, of Anaheim, rendered first aid to the officer while ham radio operator Donald Pendry, 55, of Villa Park, used the officer’s patrol car radio to call for help. David Allen, 40, of Garden Grove, also stopped and helped comfort Doeding until other officers and paramedics arrived, Caldwell said.