OSP trooper hurt, driver arrested in Redmond DUII crash
(Update: Redmond PD corrects suspect’s name, released from jail; adding mugshot, trooper’s name, other details)
An Arizona man was arrested on drunken driving and other charges late Thursday night after he turned left on S. Highway 97 in Redmond and crashed into an Oregon State police trooper’s patrol car, sending the trooper to the hospital, officers said.
Redmond police and fire personnel were dispatched around 11:35 p.m. to the reported rollover crash on the highway in front of Motel 6, Sgt. Ryan Fraker said.
Arriving officers learned Trooper Tony Halladay was still inside his patrol car, a 2015 Dodge Charger, which had flipped onto the driver’s side in a nearby vacant lot, Fraker said.
The other driver, Christopher Denis Luna, 42, of Gilbert, Arizona, was contacted at the scene by investigators. Their preliminary findings indicated the trooper was driving south on the highway when Luna, heading north at the wheel of a white 2019 Kia Sorrento, tried to turn left into the motel parking lot and hit the trooper’s car, causing it to overturn.
Halladay was taken by other troopers to St. Charles Redmond, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Fraker said.
Luna was evaluated by medics at the scene and arrested on charges of DUII-alcohol, reckless endangering and third-degree assault. He was booked into the Deschutes County Jail around 2:30 a.m. and released about six hours later after posting 10 percent of his $25,000 bail, a jail officer said.
Officers said they believe there could be at least one other witness to the incident. Fraker asked anyone with information about the crash to contact Redmond police through Deschutes County dispatch at 541-693-6911.
