BY JENNIFER A. BOWEN
News-Democrat
When a man ran into oncoming traffic on Interstate 64 Wednesday afternoon, an officer with a Taser may have saved his life.
The 59-year-old St. Charles, Mo., man spotted Illinois State Police Trooper Nate McVicker and ran from him, right into fast-moving traffic eastbound on Illinois 64 in East St. Louis.
The man, whose name was not released, was running because he believed his relatives had sent police to capture him and take him to a psychiatric institution, according to a St. Clair County Sheriff's Department report.
St. Clair County Sheriff's Sgt. Thomas Trice responded to McVicker's call for assistance and when Trice arrived, he yelled at the man to stop.
The man refused to stop and instead ran into the path of a tractor-trailer. Trice ordered the man again to stop, and when the man kept going, Trice fired a Taser to stop him from being hit by the oncoming truck, according to the report.
The Taser caused the man to fall to the ground and stopped the man from getting hit but he still attempted to crawl away from police and into traffic as McVicker attempted to handcuff him. The man was detained after receiving another shock from the Taser.
When Trice searched the man, he found prescriptions for medication from a psychiatrist. The prescriptions had not been filled.
The man was taken to the Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital in East St. Louis for evaluation.
Contact reporter Jennifer A. Bowen at jbowen@bnd.com or 239-2667.






