A Butler City police officer will be monitored after a woman sprayed him with the contents of a syringe Tuesday night.
The officer was checking to see if she was OK, the city’s police chief said.
Police Chief Bob O’Neill did not identify the officer.
The officer was patrolling on East Jefferson Street near the Spring Hill Suites Hotel when he saw a woman slumped over the wheel of a running car. He approached and identified himself as an officer, according to police. The woman reached out the window and sprayed the contents of a loaded syringe onto his face and ear, police said.
The officer saw a brown rope on the driver’s side floor believed to have been used as a tourniquet to inject drugs, police said.
Police recovered the syringe, a strip of Suboxone — a drug used to treat opioid addiction — and several empty stamp bags that are commonly used to package heroin.
The woman, Kristina Labruna, 28, of Butler is charged with two counts each of aggravated and simple assault and a drug paraphernalia charge, according to police.
The officer was treated at the hospital and will be monitored for “quite a while” because of his exposure to the suspected drugs and syringe, O’Neill said.
