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SALT LAKE CITY — Police clarified Thursday that an officer who was injured in a foot pursuit the day before actually fell over a freeway barricade rather than jumping from I-15.
"Upon further investigation, it has been revealed that our officer did not jump over the barricade in pursuit of the suspect. … The officer was engaged in a physical struggle with the suspect that resulted in both falling over the barricade," Salt Lake police said in a statement on Twitter.
The officer was trying to apprehend 20-year-old Jesser Ariel Cardina-Videa, who had been pulled over near 800 West and 300 South around 6 p.m. Wednesday and allegedly ran from police onto I-15.
The fall of 20 to 25 feet seriously injured the male officer, according to Salt Lake police. He was taken from the scene in a stretcher. He remained in serious but stable condition Thursday.
Police initially reported that the officer had jumped after Cardina-Videa in pursuit of him, but walked back those statements Thursday.
Cardina-Videa brushed up against a tree which helped break his fall, investigators say. He was arrested a short time later in a parking garage, where officers found him, a Salt Lake County Jail report states.
Cardina-Videa remains in jail for investigation of failure to stop at the command of police, interference with an arresting officer and giving a false personal identity to a police officer. He is also being held in jail on a drug possession warrant.
