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Police: County man stunned after three hit-and-runs, struggle

By Nathan Baker

Elizabethton officers wrestled a Carter County man to the ground and subdued him with multiple shocks from a stun gun outside his totaled SUV after a destructive pursuit through the city Thursday evening, police said.

When the battered 2004 Ford Explorer he was driving finally gave out at the intersection of Southside and Gap Creek roads, Elizabethton Police Department Patrol Officer James Deese and Capt. Art Smithdeal attempted to take 18-year-old Felipe Ignacio Borquez into custody on the charge of driving under the influence, but officers said he was not ready to go peacefully.

During the brief struggle, Borquez of 179 Whitson Drive, Elizabethton, was tackled by the two officers but continued to fight them from the pavement and refused their commands to put his arms behind his back to be handcuffed.

Once the barbs of Smithdeal’s stun gun delivered a 50,000-volt shock to Borquez’s body, police were able to get the handcuffs on, but Borquez still refused to comply with orders and shouted profanities at officers while lying face-down on the roadway.

EPD Patrol Officer Douglas Combs said Borquez rammed three vehicles and left a wake of destruction along G Street that injured an Elizabethton woman.