A Lucedale man is facing felony charges after authorities say he ran over a deputy’s foot during an early-morning escape attempt and then leaped from a bridge into a reservoir, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff Mike Ezell said 44-year-old Terry Allen Erwin was suspected of trying to pass counterfeit money at a convenience store on Highway 63 in the Wade community on Sunday, Dec. 19. When a deputy arrived and asked him to step out of his vehicle, Erwin instead drove off, running over the deputy’s foot. The deputy suffered minor injuries.
Erwin later wrecked his car on the Big Point Road reservoir bridge and jumped into the water below, deputies said. The Northeast Fire Department launched a boat and pulled him from the reservoir.
He was charged with felony pursuit and felony assault on a police officer. At a court hearing the next afternoon, Judge Mark Watts set bond at $200,000 on the new charges, but revoked Erwin’s bond on a pending failure-to-register-as-a-sex-offender case, keeping him jailed. The sheriff’s department said Erwin remained out on bond in that case at the time of the pursuit.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections also holds an outstanding unrelated warrant for Erwin.