OXNARD : Deputy Run Over in Parking Lot; Man Is Arrested

A Ventura County sheriff’s deputy was injured Thursday afternoon when he was run over in a Channel Islands Harbor parking lot by a Santa Barbara County man avoiding arrest, authorities said.

The suspect was also injured when the deputy’s partner opened fire on him as he fled, police said.

Deputy Larry Meyers, 38, suffered a broken left leg and cuts to his head.

He was scheduled to undergo surgery on Thursday night at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, according to police and a nursing supervisor.

Shortly after Meyers was struck, Port Hueneme police arrested Daniel Lee Williams, 32, on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer and on a charge of violating probation in Santa Barbara County, Oxnard police spokesman David Keith said.

Williams, who suffered shotgun pellet wounds in his arm and leg in the incident, was treated at Ventura County Medical Center and transferred to Ventura County Jail.

The incident occurred about 4:35 p.m. in a parking lot in the 3600 block of South Harbor Boulevard, next to a marina that Meyers and his partner, Brian Worthan, 39, had been staking out, Keith said.

They were planning to serve a warrant on Williams on the Santa Barbara County charge of violating probation on a narcotics conviction, Keith said.

Williams, who works as a diver for sea urchins, had taken his boat out for a day of diving.

The two deputies watched as the suspect returned to shore and got into his truck. But instead of driving directly out onto Harbor Boulevard, the suspect circled the parking lot.

The deputies then swung their unmarked car into the path of Williams’ truck and got out, pointing their guns toward Williams and announcing their identities, Keith said.

Williams plowed ahead, striking Meyers, who was flung under a nearby truck.

Worthan fired two rounds from his shotgun at Williams’ truck as Williams screeched out of the parking lot onto Harbor Boulevard, and then put out a call on his police radio.

Port Hueneme police intercepted Williams’ vehicle at Harbor Boulevard and Meridian Avenue.