and neck with his taser. at the same time, officer malcolm tipton reaches the scene. he races toward the brawl with his taser locked and loaded. as i got about 10 to 15 feet from them, officer deaton turned mr. german toward me and gave me a clear shot at his back. tipton let s lose the barbs and zaps german with a direct hit. the officers cuff and arrest german. paramedics arrive at the scene to treat officer deaton. my adrenaline was still rushing. i saw all this blood that was on me and at this time i could see it was dripping off my nose. deaton s nose has been sliced open from one of german s punches. in the safety of the ambulance, the officer realizes the severity of the attack. realized, man, this is for real. this guy was really trying to take me out. luckily i m still here and i started thinking of my wife and kids. good thing was, i was on the
hung up and threw it on the dashboard. at that time, that kind of made me aware that for some odd reason this guy is having a very bad day. it s about to get worse. as the officer questions german about the hit and run, the suspect makes a peculiar claim. he started telling me that he was one of us. i said what do you mean? he then showed me badge, but it said security right across it, and i could tell that he was not a police officer. the officer thinks that german is trying to curry favor with him but his claim just makes deaton more suspicious. i told him that that s not a police officer s badge. that made him upset. he threw the badge towards the windshield dashboard area. now in addition to leaving the scene of an accident, german is impersonating a police officer. a serious offense. deaton radios for backup. at this time i was telling control to have another unit step it up because i could tell that he was very frustrated and very upset at the time.
officer malcolm tipton receives the call. i have worked long enough with officer deaton to know if he says step it up that means i need to get there now. he needs someone there. tipton hits his lights and sirens and punches it to the scene. back at the blue van, officer deaton tries to take control of the tense situation. at the time, i had him step out of the vehicle because i could tell that he was very upset. he wasn t complying with my orders. i didn t know what was inside that vehicle. and if i could get him to step out and get him into handcuffs, i kind of would feel i would have one step up on him. once out of the vehicle, german becomes combative. officer deaton pulls out his taser. i aimed it at him and told him to step back, calm down. deaton attempts to cuff the suspect. i said, you re not under arrest. i m going to place you in handcuffs for your safety and mine. i then grabbed his hands. as i went to put the left handcuff on, he decided to pull
away. with one handcuff fastened, german struggles to get away. the officer aims his taser and lets the barbs fly. it has no impact. the one barb hitting him in his right shoulder. the other barb hit him in his belt. the way a taser works, it works like positive, negative. if it doesn t have both, it s not going to work at all and the belt grounded out one of the barbs. german snaps. he pulls deaton toward him and unleashes a furious punch to his face. the first thing i thought in my mind was that [ bleep ] just hit me. at that time your body just goes into survival mode. deaton grabs on tight to the loose handcuff as the two exchange blows. i did not want to let go of the cuffs because he could then turn that and use that as like a bladed weapon against me. i know he s bigger than me.
the officer realizes the severity of the attack. realized, man, this is for real. this guy was really trying to take me out. luckily i m still here and i started thinking of my wife and kids. good thing was, i was on the better side of it, even though i did get injured. and his injuries are significant. basically, i had to have reconstructive surgery on my whole eye socket. he broke the bone here, broke my temple bone and broke my eyebrow. and i had to have four titanium plates put in. six months after the assault, eric german goes to trial. he pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. i didn t do anything. i don t know why you guys are doing this to me. during the trial, jurors are shown the dashcam video. the first time they watched it, several of them had to turn away because they couldn t watch it. that really left an imprint on them. the dash cam video pretty much made the case. you can t fight the video. german is convicted of five charges, including assault, imp