‘I began to gasp for air': KCSO deputy fought for his life against theft suspect: reports

Yahoo

14-04-2025

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — What started as a call over a stolen cellphone resulted in a life or death struggle, as a Kern County sheriff's deputy fought for air after being placed in a chokehold.
Authorities say Quane Sutton tackled and pinned the deputy, then wrapped his arms around his neck.
'I began to gasp for air, felt extreme pain to the front of my neck, and feared that Sutton was going to kill me,' the deputy wrote in sheriff's reports that recently became available.
He survived with the assistance of three good Samaritans. They pulled Sutton off him before other deputies arrived and took him into custody.
Sutton, 28, faces numerous charges, including attempted murder. He's due back in court next month.
Around 11 a.m. on March 4, the deputy was dispatched after a woman said she'd left her iPhone at a 7-Eleven store on River Boulevard, then tracked it to another location where she confronted a man later identified as Sutton.
She asked him if he had her phone, and he told her he'd flung it away, the woman said according to reports filed in Superior Court. She found the shattered phone nearby.
The deputy drove to the area of Alta Vista Drive and Irene Street and found Sutton, whose clothing and appearance matched the suspect description provided by the woman.
He pulled up and told Sutton to stop, the reports say. Sutton kept walking.
The deputy got back in his patrol vehicle, followed Sutton farther along the road and again got out. He told Sutton he was being detained.
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Sutton spun around and charged him, the deputy said, knocking him on his back and pinning him.
He tried but couldn't dislodge Sutton, who weighs 240 pounds, according to the reports. Both his body-worn camera and department-issued microphone were knocked away in the struggle. He couldn't radio for help.
Despite Sutton's weight and strength — both the deputy and good Samaritans described him as 'extremely strong' — the deputy managed to roll onto his knees.
But things took a turn for the worse: Sutton wrapped his arms around the deputy's neck, the reports say. Then he pulled backward.
The deputy couldn't breathe. And he couldn't budge Sutton.
'At that moment, I was fighting for my life,' he wrote.
In a desperate maneuver, the deputy embraced Sutton's left thigh, shoved his head to the outer thigh area then pushed away to attempt to get air, according to the reports.
Help arrived around the same time.
Three bystanders — a man who'd been driving by and two men who witnessed the struggle while throwing away trash — came to his aid.
They pulled Sutton off the exhausted deputy, who heaved in air.
'With the good Samaritans' help, we pushed Sutton onto the ground in an attempt to overcome his resistance, affect his arrest, and prevent his escape,' the deputy wrote.
But Sutton displayed incredible strength. He knocked down one of the good Samaritans and rose to his knees despite the deputy now wrapped around his back and another person attempting to hold him down. The suspect crawled to a 3-foot brick wall and used it to pull himself up.
'I realized Sutton was much stronger than me and my hold was completely ineffective,' the deputy wrote.
Fearing Sutton would again gain the upper hand, and possibly grab one of his weapons, the deputy squeezed Sutton's chest then used one hand to grab a wrist and the other Sutton's hair 'as I was completely out of other reasonable force options,' he wrote according to the reports.
Soon other deputies arrived and applied control holds. Sutton stopped struggling and was handcuffed.
Sutton said he did nothing wrong, the reports say. A deputy told him he watched surveillance footage of Sutton using a standing chokehold.
'That wasn't me, I didn't do all that,' Sutton said according to the reports.
It took a while for the deputy to get his breath back. He was medically evaluated at the scene and later at a doctor's office. Photos were taken of his injuries.
He was shaken by the experience.
'Sutton was larger than me, displayed almost superhuman strength, and had the present ability to kill me without the assistance from the good Samaritans,' he wrote. 'Based on the totality of the circumstances, it was obvious that Sutton had no intentions of cooperating and would do anything to evade arrest, including kill me.'
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