Kittitas Sheriff Stabbed During Traffic Stop

Kittitas County Sheriff Bob McBride was stabbed Tuesday during a traffic stop of a tractor-trailer driver who reportedly had been threatening motorists, officials said.

McBride was stabbed in the upper chest during the stop on state Highway 26, four miles east of Vantage. He was listed in satisfactory condition Tuesday evening at Providence Medical Center in Yakima.

A Central Washington law enforcement official said McBride was driving to work when he responded to a Washington State Patrol request to tail a tractor-trailer rig whose driver had reportedly threatened motorists, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported.

McBride followed the vehicle east on Interstate 90 and across the Columbia River into Grant County, where the rig turned onto Highway 26 and stopped in the middle of the road, the official said.

McBride was stabbed in the ensuing struggle with the driver. The assailant then drove off in McBride’s unmarked cruiser, leaving the injured sheriff on the roadside.

One person was arrested at an off-ramp west of Moses Lake after a pursuit by the state patrol, Moses Lake police and Grant County sheriff’s officers. Authorities did not disclose the gender of the person arrested.