By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A Trenton police officer wounded in a struggle over her gun is recovering.

Twenty-four-year-old Jasmine Diab had been listed in critical, but stable condition at a Kansas City hospital. She has been upgraded to stable condition after undergoing surgeries to repair wounds from being shot in the abdomen by a prisoner she was transporting to St. Joseph.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Jake Angle says Diab was taking 38-year-old Jamey Griffin to St. Joseph for mental evaluation in a Trenton police car when he grabbed for her gun.

“When they reached the city limits of Winston a struggle ensued inside the vehicle,” Angle says during the KFEQ Hotline. “During that struggle, the Trenton officer was shot in the abdomen. The suspect received a gunshot wound to the hand at which time the vehicle came to a slow, rolling stop on U.S. 69 close to a convenience store there in Winston, the Pit Stop.”

Citizens at the convenience store came to the aid of Diab and restrained Griffin until officers could arrive and take him into custody.

Daviess County prosecutors charged Griffin with first-degree assault, armed criminal action, and shooting a weapon at or from a vehicle.

Angle says the dangerous incident demonstrates there are few things that are routine in police work.

“Anytime you’re dealing with a prisoner and you’re also talking about somebody that possibly their liberty is going to be taken away from them and sometimes those people choose to take desperate action,” Angle says. “I think that’s what happened in this situation. I think he felt that was an opportunity, possibly.”

Friends of Officer Diab have established an online fundraiser for her. Diab is a single mother to a five-year-old.