Fairfield police officer sprayed in face during arrest
Suspect booked into Solano County Jail on 6 felony charges, 2 misdemeanor charges
A Fairfield police officer sustained limited injuries after being spritzed in the face with bear spray during an arrest Saturday night.
Arrested in the incident was John Rogers, 29, of Fairfield who was booked into the Solano County Jail on six felony charges and two misdemeanor charges.
According to a social media post, Officer Dustin Kimball conducted a bike stop near the 4400 block of Central Way, where Rogers — a convicted felon with two felony warrants out for his arrest by the time of the bike stop — was stopped and reportedly attempted to ride away as Kimball tried to detain him. Rogers ended up grabbing a can of bear spray during the struggle and sprayed it over his shoulder into Kimball's face.
Kimball deployed his stun gun to no avail, and Rogers continued to fight until additional officers came in to arrest Rogers and take him into custody.
Lt. Jausiah Jacobsen, the department's public information officer, said Kimball was transported to a local hospital and released that night.
“In the scheme of things, they were minor injuries, but pepper spray or bear spray is very incapacitating,” he said. “Ultimately, while we're glad the injuries did not produce major injuries, it could have been really bad based off how it affects (people).”
A search of Rogers' backpack yielded a plastic case with a Ramset powder actuated nailing tool containing a live .22 caliber round, a pill bottle with forty .22 caliber ammunition and a syringe. Officers wrote that the tool is a zip gun, capable of firing rounds in the manner of a pistol and able to cause major harm to the body as well as death.
After being medically cleared, Rogers was taken into custody on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and prohibited ammunition possession and felony charges of resisting an executive officer, assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful use of tear gas, carrying a loaded firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Charges on past warrants from the Fairfield and Rio Vista police departments included bribing an officer, possession of unlawful paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance, evading an officer and driving under the influence.
Rogers was still listed as being in custody as of Monday, and his combined bail was set at $146,667. He is due to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.