Man jumps in river trying to elude deputies

A local man is behind bars after leading sheriff’s deputies on a chase through the woods, and jumping down a 25-foot embankment into the Cumberland River late Sunday evening.
Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Prewitt charged Tommy Irvin, 45, with driving while under the influence, fleeing or evading police, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, third-degree assault of a police officer, leaving the scene of an accident, and criminal mischief.
Sheriff Lawrence Hodge said the initial call police received involved a suspect allegedly pulling a knife on someone at a home on Ky. 904, and then trying to burn the house down. Officers then learned that the same suspect had wrecked nearby.
“We were heading to that call, when we got a call about a wreck past Verne,” Hodge said.
Prewitt and Deputy Glenn Bunch responded to the wreck scene, and spotted Irvin about 10:30 p.m.
“He was really badly intoxicated when he wrecked on Ky. 904,” Prewitt noted. “After the wreck he was hiding on the railroad track. I was coming from the east side, and Glenn was coming from the west. We had him right in the middle. He saw us about the same time we saw him that’s when he jumped over the bank about 25 to 30 feet over the rocks.”
When deputies got down to the river, they spotted Irvin laying face down in the river, and jumped in fearing that he might be drowning.
“We tried to roll him over to make sure he was still breathing, and everything. When we rolled him over, he had a rock, and tried to swing the rock at Glenn and myself. He was so intoxicated that you could see what he was trying to do before he could do it.”
Prewitt said that it probably took him and Bunch about 30 minutes to get Irvin out of the river, and into the back of a police cruiser.
Whitley County EMS examined Irvin at the scene, but he refused to be transported to the hospital, so police took him to the Clay County Detention Center.
Hodge said Irvin didn’t appear to be badly injured.
“You can’t hurt a drunk. When he wrecked, and beat his head up,” Hodge noted.