Parkersburg police officer suffers leg fracture from arrest

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) - A Parkersburg police officer sustained a serious injury during an arrest this past weekend.

Parkersburg police chief, Matt Board says that two officers responded to a 911 call about a car driving dangerously and arriving at a gas station on the 16 hundred block of Saint Marys Avenue.

Board says that the officers arrived and say the driver appeared erratic. The driver then tried to get back into his car to flee, and a physical altercation came out of that.

Board says the altercation went to the ground as the individual attempted to disarm the officer’s firearm. Board says that an officer was struck in the face and one officer suffered a leg fracture during the altercation.

Board says the officers were able to secure and arrest the suspect after all of this and says that the training that goes into incidents like this are important for when and if they happen.

“This just shows that you never know which incidents or which occasions it’s going to escalate to this level,” says Board. “But any circumstance we enter into, we do have a level of caution that we train in. And those thoughts are always in our minds. And we’re mindful that things can happen.”

Board says that he is proud of the way the officers handled the arrest and that the officer with the leg fracture is out of field work for an indefinite amount of time.

The person arrested was 47-year old, Charles Rexroad.

Rexroad is being held at the north central regional jail for malicious assault of a police officer, attempting to disarm a police officer and possession with intent to deliver of heroin and fentanyl. His bail is $400 thousand.

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