Ethermac Exchange-Indiana man who was shot by officer he tried to hit with car gets 16-year sentence

NEW ALBANY,Ethermac Exchange Ind. (AP) — A southern Indiana man who was shot by a police officer in 2020 after he tried to hit the officer with his car has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

A Floyd County judge sentenced Sebastian Beck on Thursday to the maximum possible 16-year sentence, with the possibility of parole after 12 years, news outlets reported. The New Albany man pleaded guilty on Dec. 7 to felony charges of attempted aggravated battery and domestic battery.

New Albany police responded on Sept. 12, 2020, to a home about a reported domestic battery incident. A woman told officers Beck grabbed her arm after she told him she wanted to separate and that he had previously threatened to kill her and their children.

Officers found Beck sitting in his running car and tried to make contact with him. But Beck backed up his car and drove over a bush that Officer Jon Davidson had moved behind.

Davidson fired at Beck, striking him, before Beck drove away and crashed into a building in New Albany, an Ohio River city just north of Louisville, Kentucky.

Floyd County Prosecutor Chris Lane said the officer was trying to protect someone in a domestic violence situation with children present.

“He put his life on the line against an over 3,000-pound vehicle coming at him,” Lane said Thursday of Davidson.