Officials say a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy shot and wounded a suspect who attacked a jail guard and held her hostage with her own stun gun.
The incident happened around 1 p.m. Friday at the sheriff's department's Lakewood station.
Authorities say the man -- who was suspected of stealing a car -- was being fingerprinted when he punched the custody assistant in the face. They say the worker collapsed, and the man took the stun gun from her belt.
"As he's struggling to get the Tazer out of the holster after he took it away from her, she's able to crawl over and hit a panic button," said homicide detective John Corina. The panic button set off an alarm that alerted all personnel in the jail that someone required immediate help.
Corina said the suspect, who he described as about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing roughly 265 pounds, then dragged the worker into a holding cell by her hair and locked the door. Deputies got another jailer to open the door and that's when the suspect pointed the stun gun at deputies.
At least one of the deputies opened fire, shooting him in the torso and critically injuring him. After getting shot, the suspect let go of the jail worker and she managed to crawl out of the cell, Corina said.
At that point, deputies tried to shut the cell door, but the man instead pushed back to keep it open until deputies overpowered him and finally managed to close it. Another deputy then fired his stun gun through the cell's tray opening, which finally forced the man to drop to the ground, allowing deputies to enter and subdue him without further incident, Corina said.
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The suspect was taken to a hospital and was in stable but critical condition. The jail worker suffered a broken nose, a concussion and a possible broken orbital bone, Corina said.
"As you can see, the C.A. was very lucky," the detective added.
