South Bend Police: Woman arrested after drunkenly crashing vehicle, attacking officers

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - A 20-year-old Elkhart woman was arrested and charged after police say she crashed a vehicle while driving drunk and attacked several South Bend police officers early Sunday morning.

Officers were called just before 2 a.m. to S. 24th Street on reports of a vehicle crashing into a fence. When they arrived, they saw a woman exiting the driver’s seat of a vehicle that was in someone’s front yard of and had a metal fence beneath the bumper.

The woman, identified as 20-year-old Durojai Mason of Elkhart, reportedly told police that she never learned how to drive and said that she was drinking prior to driving the vehicle. While speaking with Mason, officers found a young child in the back seat of the vehicle without a car seat or seatbelt.

Officers then administered standardized field sobriety tests on Mason. She allegedly threatened the officers on several occasions during this process.

Due to weather conditions, officers told Mason they’d continue the sobriety tests at the police station, which ultimately led to Mason punching one of the officers.

Mason was brought to the ground by other officers, and police say she began kicking her legs and resisting them. Mason then spit in the face of one of the officers, bit another officer’s hand, kicked a third officer in the leg, and kicked a fourth officer in the chest.

After being placed in the back seat of a patrol car, police say Mason kicked its window several times.

Mason was taken to the St. Joseph County Jail and was formally charged with the following:

• Battery with bodily injury to a public safety officer
• Battery against a public safety official (three counts)
• Battery by bodily waste, victim is a public safety officer
• Neglect of a dependent
• Operating a vehicle while intoxicated, endangering a person
• Resisting law enforcement
• Criminal mischief
• Minor consuming alcohol
• Knowingly or intentionally operating a motor vehicle without ever receiving a license

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