Metro officer wounded by gunfire

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1997 | 11:02 a.m.

If a Metro Police officer didn't have quick reflexes when looking down the barrel of a semiautomatic pistol early today, he might have taken a slug between the eyes.

The name of the patrol officer, a three-year veteran of Metro, was not released. He suffered a wound to the upper left arm from a bullet that was fired through the windshield of his patrol car.

Joseph Browhaw, 18, and Jerolin Sanders, 21, were booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of attempted murder of a police officer with a deadly weapon, police said.

The shot was fired following a pre-dawn, high-speed chase that ended at Los Altos Street and Oakey Boulevard, which is between Arville Street and Valley View Boulevard.

"The officer leaned to his right and the bullet hit him in the left arm where his head would have been," said Metro Captain Greg Jolley.

Browhaw and Sanders were arrested after being tracked by a police helicopter and canine units following the 3:40 a.m. incident, which began when the officer stopped a suspicious car at Charleston Boulevard and Hinson Street.

As the officer got out of his patrol car, the other vehicle took off south on Hinson to Oakey and went out of control near Los Altos, Jolley said.

As the officer arrived on the scene, two men were fleeing the vehicle, one armed with a semiautomatic weapon, police said.

However, Jolley said, the man apparently forgot to bring the magazine, which later was recovered from the front seat, leaving him with just one shot. The gun was found a short time later in front of a house on Oakey.

The man who police believed to have fired it was found in the back yard of that house. The other man was arrested near Hinson and Charleston.

Investigators are attempting to determine if a third man was involved in the incident and is still at large, Jolley said.

A sawed-off shotgun was recovered from the back seat of the men's car.

The officer, who fired three shots during the incident, hitting no one, was taken to the University Medical Center where he was treated and released.