Teacher helps officer subdue suspect
Published: June 25, 2005
When he returns to Hayward Elementary School this fall, art teacher Paul Rajski will have a good “what-I-did-on-my-summer” story to tell.
He pulled a man off a Sioux Falls police officer as they struggled in the side yard.
The suspect, police said, had just led police on a car chase Thursday afternoon on the edge of downtown Sioux Falls. At one point, the suspect threatened to take the officer’s gun and shoot him with it, said police spokesman Loren McManus.
“My little girl, who is going on 5, said, ‘Daddy, there’s two strangers in our yard,’ ” Rajski said.
So he looked out the window of his home on North Prairie Avenue and saw the officer struggling with the man.
“This guy was on top of this cop,” he recalls. The officer “looked like he needed a hand because he was on the bottom of the situation.”
Rajski ran outside and “I just grabbed his right arm and pulled it back.”
The officer was then able to cuff the suspect. Benjamin J. Olson, 23, of 2400 S. Summit Ave., was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.
In addition to the assault count, Olson is charged with resisting arrest, eluding, fleeing police, failure to show proof of auto insurance, and driving without a seat belt.
Around 5 p.m., the officer attempted to stop Olson’s vehicle at the intersection of Sixth Street and Minnesota Avenue in connection with a reckless driving report. Olson allegedly led the officer on a chase to Eighth Street and Summit Avenue, where he stopped, but left his engine running.
In response to the officer’s order to turn off the engine, Olson replied, “‘What would you do if I took off again?’ And he did,” according to McManus.
The pursuit continued to Eighth and Prairie Avenue, where Olson stopped again, McManus said. As the officer got out of his patrol vehicle, Olson allegedly rushed him, and after a short struggle Olson broke away and ran.
After a foot chase, the officer caught him in the front yard of Rajski’s residence.
Olson and the officer tussled again and, McManus said, Olson threatened the officer, “saying he would get his gun and shoot him with it.”
As the officer secured his weapon with his right hand, Olson broke away and fled to another part of the yard. The officer caught up with him there, and Rajski then aided the officer in apprehending Olson.
McManus said police are recommending Rajski for commendation.
“It’s not what we ask to have happen, because of the possibility of injury” when citizens attempt to aid police in arrests, McManus said. “But we do appreciate it.”
When Rajski tells the story, he’s quick to credit the officers who apprehend suspects every day.
“They’re the ones who deserve the kudos, not me,” he said.
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