Man Held in Vehicular Assault on Officer

A man who attempted to run down a Los Angeles police officer in Sherman Oaks was arrested early Sunday, authorities said.

Kenneth Arnold Saunders, 30, of Los Angeles was arrested at an apartment in the 800 block of South Westlake Avenue at 1:45 a.m., about nine hours after he attempted to run down the officer who had stopped him for jaywalking, police said.

Motorcycle Officer Harlan de Jongh, who fired three shots at the car, was uninjured. De Jongh, who is assigned to the Valley Traffic Division, stopped Saunders and another man near Van Nuys and Ventura boulevards about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. A routine warrant check revealed that Saunders was wanted on a drug-related charge, Sgt. Jim Gicking said.

Saunders jumped into a nearby car and tried to run down De Jongh, who fired three shots, Gicking said. He said all the shots were misses.

Saunders was being held Sunday at the Van Nuys Jail in lieu of $13,000 bail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon as well as the earlier drug charge.