(Hammond, IN) - After an Indiana State Trooper was injured in an interstate hit-and-run, an armed bystander helped apprehend the offender.

 

The action took place beginning at around 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning on I-80/94 in Hammond.

 

According to police, a State Trooper, assisted by a Hammond fire truck, was investigating a suspicious incident on the interstate. At that time, an eastbound 2016 Dodge Charger passed the scene at a high rate of speed, striking the fire truck and another vehicle. Spinning out of control, the Charger then hit another vehicle, which pinned Trooper William Carlson against a concrete barrier wall. Carlson was able to free himself and received medical treatment at a nearby hospital.

 

The driver of the Dodge ditched his badly damaged vehicle, leaving in it a badly injured passenger, a 23-year-old woman from Chicago Heights, Illinois. While the subject was pursued on foot by another Trooper, an alert passerby used his truck to corner the fugitive. One of the truck’s occupants was armed and got out of the truck to hold the suspect at gunpoint until police took him into custody. Police are not releasing the identities of the Good Samaritans who aided in the arrest.

 

The driver of the Charger was identified as 23-year-old Bryan K. Smith of North Carolina. Police say a .45 caliber Glock handgun was found in his vehicle. Smith is being held in the Lake County Jail pending formal charges.