Sacramento, CA : War hero accused of hit-and-run crash on Monday, 22nd August, 2016

The mental state of a decorated war hero, who is accused of trying to kill a Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle officer a week ago by ramming him repeatedly with a truck, is being questioned by prosecutors.

Philip Scott Newlyn, 28, who was awarded a Purple Heart medal in 2009 for pulling his fellow soldier from a burning Humvee in Iraq, appeared Monday in San Fernando Superior Court to be arraigned on a charge of attempted murder.

He was ordered, instead, to undergo testing to determine his mental competency, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

He was not formally charged with attempted murder Monday as scheduled, DA spokesman Ricardo Santiago told The Signal Tuesday.

“The defense declared a doubt as to the defendant’s competency so the criminal proceedings were suspended and he was not arraigned,” Santiago said.

“An update on the mental health proceedings is scheduled for Sept. 6 in Department S in San Fernando,” he said.

Newlyn’s mental competency is expected to be reviewed in court at that time.

The former Air Force staff sergeant was arrested Thursday evening near San Diego, according to an arrest report released by California Highway Patrol Officer Josh Greengard.

The suspect is a resident of Elk Grove, a suburb south of Sacramento.

The hit-and-run traffic collision involving a Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle happened shortly after 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 just north of Hasley Canyon Road.

An LAPD officer — with 12 years of motorcycle experience — was injured and taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital after being struck several times by a white full-size pickup truck, investigators said at the time.

“We are working with the District Attorney’s Office for attempted 187 or attempted murder on an officer,” CHP Capt. Edward A. Krusey said Wednesday when asked what crime the pickup truck driver was suspected of committing.

“Based on the witnesses and the LAPD officer’s statements and on preliminary evidence at the scene, it was determined that the driver of a full-sized white pickup truck intentionally struck the rear of an on-duty LAPD motorcycle officer, pushing it a considerable distance,” Krushey said.

Newlyn, who nearly lost his leg during an attack in Iraq, was given a hero’s welcome in December 2009, said newspaper reporter Howard Yune, who wrote about the event for the Appeal-Democrat newspaper in Marysville.

“He was a quiet, soft-spoken man, I remember,” Yune told The Signal Tuesday.

When Newlyn arrived in Sacramento from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. in 2009, he was given a police escort from Sacramento International Airport, Yune wrote.

He was serving a one-year tour in Iraq with the 9th Security Forces Squadron, which provides security for convoys, patrols and aircraft.

On Sept. 15, 2009, Newlyn was travelling with a convoy from a U.S. military base near Baghdad, Yune wrote. An explosive device detonated near Newlyn’s patrol vehicle.

Newlyn was able to pull the Humvee’s driver who was rendered unconscious from the damaged vehicle.


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