A Mountain View police officer broke a 16-year-old girl’s nose Monday night after she grabbed his baton, jabbed him with it and tried to strike him over the head, a police spokeswoman said.
The officer was assaulted while investigating a fight between two teenagers at Quetzal House, a center on View Street for teen girls who are chronic runaways from the Santa Clara County foster care system, police spokeswoman Liz Wylie said. Staff called police to the facility at about 8:15 p.m.
One of the girls involved in the fight kept interrupting the officer as he tried to interview a staff member in private and then started to swear at him, Wylie said. The officer asked the teen to wait in another room, but she refused.
The girl, described as 5-foot-2 and 250 pounds, kept up the verbal barrage and the officer decided to put her in handcuffs, Wylie said. But the teen resisted and kept struggling even after he forced her to the ground, Wylie said.
During the scuffle, the girl got hold of the officer’s wooden baton and jabbed him in the chest and ribs, according to Wylie.
“He tried to take the baton away from her and she raised it up over her head,” Wylie said. “He was pretty certain she was going to hit him in the head with it.”
The officer deflected the baton with his arm and punched the girl three times in the face, Wylie said. She was then taken into custody.
The girl was treated for a broken nose at a hospital and booked into juvenile hall on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. The Mountain View Police Department also wants the district attorney’s office to charge her with assault on an officer and removing a weapon from an officer.
The 33-year-old officer has been with the police department since February and had previously worked for another law enforcement agency, according to Wylie. He cut and scraped his hand during the scuffle with the girl.
Email Jesse Dungan at jdungan@dailynewsgroup.com.
