Friday’s sentencing shows there will be no tolerance for potentially putting any officers life at risk. And now Rusty Garlock will spend up to three years behind bars.

 A year and a half, to three years in prison, nd more than $10,000 in fines.

That’s the punishment for Rusty Garlock, of Three Springs, who assaulted a Pennsylvania Game Commission Officer in Three Springs Township last year.

A judged accepted a plea agreement for Garlock, which included two felony charges.

David Smith, District Attorney for Huntingdon County, said the plea agreement was a fair deal for a serious crime.

“It was his actions, it was his decision and now he has to pay the consequences,” Smith said.

The officer had initially tried to stop Garlock on suspicion of poaching.

But Garlock tried to flee, and rammed his truck into the driver side of the officers patrol car.

Brandon Pfister, Conservation Officer for the PA Game Commission, said the officer who was assaulted was not only his colleague, but a friend.

“[He was] an excellent officer. but we’re forced to step aside and let the facts guide us in the direction that the investigation has to go to be fair and just,” Pfister said.

Pfister was also the arresting officer for the case.

Following Garlock’s sentencing, he said the alternative price could’ve been much worse.

“On our side, the ‘what if’ was very important. One second too soon, one second too late, we could’ve either had 1, had an officer who had been killed in the line of duty or possibly a victim defendant being injured in another way,” Pfister said.

And he hopes no other member of law enforcement is put in this position.

“We shouldn’t have those kind of fears on our job that people want to do that,” Pfister said.

Currently Garlock is at the Huntingdon County Jail until arrangements can be made to send him to a state correctional facility.