A freshman WVU student was arrested Sunday for attacking a Morgantown Police officer.
Chad William LeClair, 18, of Frederick, Md., is charged with malicious assault and strangulation by the Morgantown Police Department.
WVU spokesperson April Kaull said LeClair is a freshman energy land management major and, like any student, he is subject to the WVU Student Code of Conduct as well as any legal action taken by police or the courts.
Officer C. Webster was called to the intersection of Walnut Street and University Avenue about 1:35 a.m. by another officer who was transporting an arrest to the holding facility inside of the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department, according to a criminal complaint.
The officer reported a man was in the middle of the road and “flipping cars off” while yelling, the complaint said.
When Webster arrived at the scene, he saw the officer who reported LeClair was sitting at a red light in a marked police vehicle and LeClair was on the passenger side, the complaint said. As the vehicle drove off and pulled into the sally port of the sheriff’s department, LeClair hit, or attempted to hit, the police car.
After the vehicle entered the sally port, LeClair began walking toward it and Webster heard the car door shut as he was approaching LeClair, a criminal complaint said.
LeClair then crouched and started backing away from the officer, hid behind the corner of the sheriff’s department and kept his left hand hidden near his waistband, waiting for the officer, in what Webster recognized as a “clear ambush tactic,” the complaint said.
Webster alerted the other officer to LeClair coming up behind him, announced himself as police and grabbed LeClair by his right wrist and left shoulder from behind while telling him to place his hands behind his back, the complaint said.
LeClair said something that Webster didn’t catch and “immediately placed me in a choke hold by wrapping his arm around my neck,” Webster wrote. LeClair was squeezing to the point Webster could not breathe or speak. LeClair spun Webster around and struck his head against the wall until Webster was able to move the fight away from the wall and another officer arrived.
The two officers had to pry and strike LeClair several times before he let go, the complaint said.
Webster was treated by medics for cuts, scrapes and bruises he received in the attack and was returned to duty, according to Chief Ed Preston. LeClair did not need medical treatment, Morgantown Communications Manager Andrew Stacy said.
The motive for the attack is not known, but LeClair was intoxicated. There is no known relationship between the person being transported and LeClair, Stacy said.
LeClair is being held in North Central Regional Jail in lieu of $250,000 bond.
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