DALLAS – A kidnapping suspect accused of threatening the judge overseeing his case faces new assault charges after he attacked a deputy during a failed escape attempt at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, authorities said Saturday.
Brent Taff, 37, was being escorted from Utah to Oklahoma to face assault charges for verbal threats against the judge, when he made his bid for freedom during a layover Friday in Dallas, said Tulsa County Sheriff's Maj. Shannon Clark. Taff told his deputy escorts that he needed to use the restroom and then attacked the one who took him inside, Clark said.
The deputy's head was injured in the ensuing struggle, but he managed to shoot Taff in the hand before the other deputy and airport staff captured Taff as he tried to flee the restroom, Clark said.
Investigators are trying to determine if the deputy had uncuffed Taff's hands to allow him to use the restroom, Clark said.
The deputy was treated and released from a hospital Saturday. His name was not released.
Taff was initially accused in Oklahoma of stalking, kidnapping and domestic assault as well as violation of protective orders. Taff, of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, was free on bond when he was arrested in Utah, and accused of making threatening statements against his ex-wife, a prosecutor and the judge overseeing his case. He faces new charges of assault on a public servant and escape causing bodily injury, and was being held without bond Saturday, according to Dallas County jail records.
Taff will remain in Texas until charges related to the airport attack are resolved, then he will be sent to Tulsa, Clark said.
Online jail records did not list an attorney for Taff in Dallas.
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