Florence Man Pulls Knife on Lane County Deputy, Flees Before Arrest

A Lane County deputy assigned to the Dunes contract encountered 34-year-old Dustin Steven Lafrance of Florence near the 83700 block of Clear Lake Road after a resident reported a man had entered their property, lit a brush pile on fire and threatened the property owner, sheriff’s office notifications say. When the deputy attempted to detain Lafrance, the man produced a knife; the deputy avoided injury and separated himself from Lafrance, who then ran north on Clear Lake Road.

Deputies and other officers joined the foot pursuit, and Lafrance was later spotted roughly one mile north on Huckleberry Lane. A Florence Police Department officer deployed a Taser to subdue Lafrance, and an Oregon State Police trooper assisted in taking him into custody, the sheriff’s office reported. No officers were reported to have fired weapons or sustained injuries in the incident.

Lafrance was arrested shortly after the chase and booked into the Lane County Jail. Jail records show he was in custody as of March 6. The Lane County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged assistance from the Florence Police Department and Oregon State Police in locating and arresting Lafrance.

Published accounts and agency notices list overlapping but not identical allegations tied to the incident and to prior matters. Lookout Eugene reported Lafrance was booked on unlawful use of a weapon and charged in Lane County Circuit Court with resisting arrest and second-degree criminal trespass in addition to the weapons charge. KEZI’s reporting expands the list, saying Lafrance faces resisting arrest, menacing, unlawful use of a weapon, and reckless burning, and that he is also charged with theft in the second degree from a previous case and probation violations related to prior convictions.

The sheriff’s incident bulletin specifies the initial call came at about 11 a.m. on March 4. Law enforcement sources describe the call as a trespassing and reckless burning complaint originating at the 83700 block of Clear Lake Road in Dunes City; that timeline places the deputy encounter and subsequent pursuit the same morning.

Agency records and court filings have not been consolidated in a single public release; the Sheriff’s Office provided the incident details on March 6. The booking and charge information on record with Lane County Jail and Lane County Circuit Court will determine the formal charges and any scheduled court appearances for Lafrance.

Investigators have not publicly tied recovered property or additional evidence to Lafrance in the sheriff’s notice; a separate block of material in one agency alert names a different suspect and appears to describe unrelated recoveries, so recovery details remain unconfirmed in Lafrance’s case. Law enforcement officials have been asked for case numbers, the arresting officers’ reports, and the Taser deployment record to clarify the sequence of events and the final charges filed.