Officer Injured in MCM Grande Parking Lot

An unidentified Ector County Sheriff's deputy was taken by ambulance to Medical Center Hospital with non life-threatening injuries late Friday night after he was dragged several feet through the MCM Grande Fun Dome parking lot, Odessa Police officers stated at the scene.

An officer said the off-duty deputy was dragged by a blue sedan while trying to apprehend someone. He did not know why the deputy was trying to arrest the man, but said the deputy had several pains on the side of his body afterward.

A sweet 16 was broken up immediately after the incident and a crowd stood out in the parking lot.

Jennifer Minjarez said that deputy came to break up her Sweet 16 party because a noise complaint shortly after 11 p.m.

At approximately 11:15 p.m., the injured deputy came back in with one other officer, "screaming, cussing out" the crowd, Minjarez said.

"They just ran over my buddy," partygoer Jaymi Delao said, quoting a second officer that came in.

Christina Gochigoa, another partygoer, said she saw the deputy chasing multiple kids who were drinking in the parking lot until they entered the blue sedan. From what she and another witness said they saw, the deputy tried to reach into the car to stop them when they started driving, and the deputy fell off the side of the car.

He got back up on his own, went into the convention center to break the party up, stepped back outside but then started complaining about a shortness of breath, she added.

It was not known why an off-duty deputy was dispersing the party. Officers were also not sure if the person that drove the blue sedan off was one of the partygoers, and their description of a single driver conflicted with Gochigoa's description of multiple kids being chased.