Prosecutor's office: Suspect fought off police with Taser, asked kids for car keys

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WESTPORT -- A man in an alleged dispute with his wife faces charges of shocking an intervening police officer with the officer's Taser before running into a neighboring home and asking children for car keys to a getaway vehicle, the Grays Harbor County Prosecutor's Office said.

According to court charging documents, Westport police received a call of a man slumped over the wheel of his green Volkswagen around 7:50 p.m. Sunday at the west end of Hancock Avenue in Westport. When a police officer arrived to check on the man, he spotted George Lytle III, 40, sitting next to his wife in the car.

The two noticed the officer approaching, police said, and left the car, taking off in opposite directions. Recognizing the pair as Lytle and his wife -- who currently holds a no contact order against Lytle -- the officer chased Lytle and told him to stop, police said. Lytle allegedly said "I am not going with you," before he ran off into tall brush.

The cop chased him and tackled him to the ground. Lytle continued to fight, so the officer pulled out his Taser and attempted shocked him. Somehow, Lytle managed to get the Taser away from the officer and used it to shock the man into submission.

Lytle then left the cop incapacitated on the ground, documents show, and sprinted into a nearby house. Sitting on the couch in the house were four children, aged 13 to 8. Lytle allegedly demanded keys to the car parked out front.

The befuddled children said they didn’t know were the keys were, and police arrived on scene and chased Lytle out of the house, police said. They managed to tackle Lytle just as he was getting in his wife's VW Beetle, and he was arrested.

The police officer who Lytle allegedly attacked was taken to the hospital to repair a broken bone in his hand.

Lytle is charged with first-degree burglary and third-degree assault for the July 6 incident. He will be in court later this month.