A Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s motorcycle officer was injured when his bike was hit by the car of a fleeing shoplifting suspect.
It happened just before 4 Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of a Home Depot on Market Place Drive in Goleta.
The deputy was responding to a call of a theft in progress when the suspect jumped out of his moving vehicle, and it hit the officer’s motorcycle. Jeffrey Morgan tried to escape on foot, but he was arrested nearby. Deputies say the 29 year old man was on parole for armed robbery, and was driving a stolen car. He was booked on nearly a dozen criminal charges.
The motorcycle officer was treated at the scene for minor injuries, and didn’t need to go to the hospital.
