{"id":16933,"date":"2013-02-01T07:40:53","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T15:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=16933"},"modified":"2013-02-01T07:46:02","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T15:46:02","slug":"olympia-man-charged-in-attack-of-medics-will-be-sent-to-western-state-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=16933","title":{"rendered":"Olympia man charged in attack of medics will be sent to Western State Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2013.0131.wade.buchanan_2\"<\/a>

Wade C. Buchanan awaits his turn to see a judge in Chehalis on Thursday.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker<\/strong>
\n Lewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHEHALIS \u2013 The man accused of biting, hitting and kicking three paramedics in an apparently unprovoked attack at a Centralia gas station will be examined by doctors at a state mental hospital before a criminal case will proceed in Lewis County Superior Court.<\/p>\n

Wade C. Buchanan, 47, of Olympia, remains held in the Lewis County Jail following his arrest on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Buchanan appeared before a judge in Chehalis yesterday morning, where his lawyer requested a competency evaluation.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s competency issues,” Chehalis attorney Chris Baum said. “It’s important to deal with that early on in a case.”<\/p>\n

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said he was still gathering reports, but believes previous cases against Buchanan have been dismissed, possibly related to issues of competency.<\/p>\n

Buchanan was charged on Monday with two counts of second-degree assault and one count of third-degree assault in connection with the afternoon incident at the Chevron station on the 1200 block of Mellen Street, near Interstate 5.<\/p>\n

AMR’s headquarters is just around the corner<\/p>\n

Police say no one could explain why Buchanan lashed out at the men.<\/p>\n

The AMR medics were fueling up their ambulance and Buchanan’s vehicle was parked at the gas pumps in front of them, according to police.<\/p>\n

Centralia Police Department Sgt. Carl Buster said Buchanan made a comment about them driving a new ambulance and then charged one the medics. Court documents allege Buchanan approached the driver, Steven Spurgeon-Busz, and tried to pull him out of his rig; he resisted and Buchanan bit him on the arm, breaking the skin.<\/p>\n

Buster said, after the arrest, that surveillance footage of the scene showed the driver kicking Buchanan away from the ambulance.<\/p>\n

The video captured what appear to be the first portions of what turned into a brawl, but much of it becomes blocked by a gas pump and then an arriving truck.<\/p>\n

Charging documents say when Ronald Dire-Day moved in to help, Buchanan struck him in the face leaving a large cut; the two AMR employees tackled Buchanan and then a third medic arrived to assist.<\/p>\n

Scott Riley was trying to control Buchanan’s legs when he was kicked in the chest, according to charging documents.<\/p>\n

Another customer, 49-year-old Victoria Disney, of Vancouver, Wash., told police she jumped on Buchanan’s back in an effort to help the medics, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

Buchanan allegedly continued to fight when four police officers responded, as one applied a Taser to the back of his neck and another sprayed pepper spray in his eyes and mouth, according to charging documents.<\/p>\n

“(He) attacked them and he’s crazy,” Disney reportedly told police. She was unhurt.<\/p>\n

Buster said Buchanan sustained some scrapes.<\/p>\n

In court yesterday, Buchanan was shackled at both his waist and ankles.<\/p>\n

Judge James Lawler signed an order allowing DNA to be taken via a mouth swab so it could be tested for communicable diseases, given one of the medics was bit.<\/p>\n

A review hearing was scheduled for Feb. 21, so the lawyers could inform the judge if the report from Western State Hospital is back after the competency evaluation.
\n\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

For background and link to video footage, read “Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup – THREE MEDICS INJURED IN GAS STATION BRAWL” from Sunday January 27, 2013, here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS \u2013 The man accused of biting, hitting and kicking three paramedics in an apparently unprovoked attack at a Centralia gas station will be examined by doctors at a state mental hospital before a criminal case will proceed in Lewis County Superior Court. Wade C. Buchanan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-16933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16933"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16938,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16933\/revisions\/16938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}