Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Central Coast man arrested after police say he intentionally had a head-on crash with a patrol unit

A pickup truck a split second before it rams head-on into a Grover Beach Police patrol unit Sunday night. The photo is from the unit's dash camera.
Grover Beach Police Department
A pickup truck a split second before it rams head-on into a Grover Beach Police patrol unit Sunday night. The photo is from the unit's dash camera.

Grover Beach Police officer suffers minor injuries in crash.

Police in a Central Coast city say a man who was driving under the influence intentionally rammed a patrol unit head-on, and they say the whole thing was captured by a dashcam. It happened Sunday night in Grover Beach.

Grover Beach Police officers were called to a neighborhood by reports of a disturbance. They say a pickup truck had collided with another vehicle.

The pickup evaded one officer, and tried to flee the area. A second patrol unit arriving on the scene activated its lights, to warn the vehicles to stop.

But, investigators say the driver of the pickup truck sped up and rammed the police unit head-on.

The officer escaped with minor injuries. Steven Tomis was arrested without further incident. The 62-year-old Grover Beach man was arrested for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, and DUI with injury.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.