Redmond fugitive puts up fight, arrested in store parking lot

A 30-year-old wanted fugitive was followed in a car to the Redmond Fred Meyer parking lot Tuesday evening, where he was arrested after putting up a violent struggle that left him and two detectives with minor injuries, authorities said Wednesday.

Detectives with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Street Crimes Unit and with the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team developed information Tuesday that Travis Gee was located at a home in Redmond, said sheriff’s Sgt. Deke DeMars. Gee had an outstanding arrest warrant for parole violation, due to absconding parole.

Detectives staked out the home and saw Gee get into a car driven by someone else and leave the area, the sergeant said. They followed him to the Fred Meyer parking lot, at 944 Southwest Veterans Way, where they conducted a high-risk (guns drawn) traffic stop as the driver parked the car, DeMars said.

The driver, whose name was withheld, immediately complied with detectives’ commands and was detained without incident, DeMars said.

Gee, however, locked himself inside the car, refusing to come out while pounding on the passenger-side window and yelling at detectives, the sergeant said.

Detectives were able to reach an unlocked door and got into the car to remove Gee, who began punching and kicking a detective, DeMars said. The other doors then were unlocked and detectives began trying to pull Gee out, as he continued punching and kicking other detectives.

Physical force was used to remove Gee from the car, DeMars said, but he continued to resist efforts to handcuff him. But he eventually was handcuffed and taken into custody.

Gee received minor injuries, and though medics were dispatched to evaluate him, he refused to be examined, DeMars said. Two detectives received minor injuries that did not require medical treatment.

A Redmond Police Department drug dog was brought to the scene and alerted to the presence of drugs in the car. A search turned up a street-level dealer quantity of heroin in Gee’s possession, as well as packaging materials and scales, DeMars said.

Gee was taken to the county jail in Bend and remained held without bail Wednesday on the parole violation warrant. He also faces 15 counts of assaulting a public safety officer and single counts of resisting arrest, heroin possession, and delivery and manufacture of heroin within 1,000 feet of a school.

The DCSO Street Crimes Unit focuses on street-level drug crimes and quality of life issues tied to property crimes.

In May of last year, Bend police said Gee stole a Jeep Wrangler, eluded police during a pursuit and manhunt. Later that month, Gee later was found hiding in a northeast Bend home and arrested after a brief struggle with police, and a woman at the home was charged with hiding him.