Nevada Highway Patrol employee arrested on suspicion of DUI

A Nevada Highway Patrol employee known for his lifesaving work was arrested on suspicion of a DUI.

Jacob Fisher was arrested on Friday after Las Vegas police say he was driving so fast that dirt and dust from the roadway were flying in the air.

“The Nevada State Police Highway Patrol is aware of the incident involving a division employee who has been placed on administrative leave while an internal investigation is conducted,” reads a statement from a Highway Patrol spokesperson.

After following him to a home near Mountain’s Edge Park, police said the man, later identified as Fisher, ignored him. The officer turned on his emergency lights and siren and repeatedly told Fisher: “Get over here,” but Fisher looked at him and then went inside, where he stayed for a minute before coming out to talk to him.

A second officer arrived at the scene and described Fisher as “hyper and furtive” and said he was speaking very fast, according to the report. Police also said his eyes were bloodshot and watery, and the officer detected a strong smell of alcohol on his breath.

Police had begun following Fisher when they saw him driving over 80 mph in a 35 mph zone, according to the report.

Fisher maintained that he hadn’t drunk any alcohol and agreed to a preliminary breath test, which police said did not align with Fisher’s claims.

Fisher, an Army National Guard veteran, has received several awards for his work at the Highway Patrol. When he was a trooper in 2019, he made headlines for performing lifesaving CPR on a driver suffering a heart attack.

At the time, he had received three lifesaving awards. Two came from applying tourniquets to people injured after crashes. The third stems from his efforts at the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting, when he worked in the incident command center and then joined Metropolitan Police Department officers handling secondary active shooter calls.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.