Man is found guilty of assaulting officer after running semi into police cruisers

Click here for updates on this story

    OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) — A man from Wahoo will be locked up for a while. A jury found him guilty of assaulting an officer.

The jury found him guilty on six of the 10-charges he was charged with over a year ago.

A Wahoo police SUV totaled. A Saunders County Sheriff’s cruiser saw the same fate. It happened in the middle of town last August.

The vehicles were easily overmatched by this now-busted up semi.

When we caught up to the guy behind-the-wheel the next day, Jeffrey Ehrlich had very little to share with the court.

Jeff Ehrlich said, “This is a big, big problem that happened. I don’t recall much that evening.”

Prosecutors said he was looking for a fight with law enforcement after a fight with family – that Wahoo Police were going down, and he was ready to die.

One of the officers said he jumped behind a tree to avoid the out-of-control semi crushing him.

At the time, Wahoo’s Police Chief praised his officer and the deputy for showing restraint in apprehending the suspect – one, he believed could have turned into a shootout.

In the end, a jury found the 61-year-old guilty of assaulting the deputy in the chest with the bat – and for terroristic threats of both cops.

However, the jury deadlocked on the charges connected to attempted first-degree murder – where the semi was the weapon.

The state plans to retry him on those counts later this year.

Ehrlick will be sentenced on October 5. Because there are so many charges, the best gauge may center on the terroristic threats charges which carry a sentence of up to 20-years.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.