Officer Struck By Police Vehicle In West Philadelphia
By Greg Argos
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- One man is in police custody after a foot chase led to a Philadelphia officer being injured with his foot run over by a fellow cop.
Detectives say it happened around 1:35 p.m. Friday afternoon at 55th Street and Pine Street when one uniformed Philadelphia police officer spotted a man driving a Honda accord. The man driving the Honda then began bashing the windows of a SUV with a bat, just feet from the 18th precinct.
"He flees," says Lieutenant John Walker, "the uniformed officers lose track of him."
But when the suspect parked his vehicle just five minutes later, two plainclothes officers in a tan pickup spot him.
"The partner in the unmarked vehicle gets out of the car," says Walker, "starts chasing the offender here westbound on Pine Street."
With one officer chasing on foot, his partner used the truck to cut off the suspect's paths, as he does that it slows the offender down.
The cop that first spotted the suspect, the one in this marked van, saw the chase and as the suspect tries running around the pickup:
"They both fall into the ground."
And that's when the officer is hit by the cop that first saw the suspect.
"He's not able to stop quick enough and runs over the leg of the officer," says Walker.
Investigators say the cop that got run over is going to be ok and now the focus is on why the suspect even damaged the SUV in the first place.
"The owner of that vehicle is not in the city and there was nobody in the car at the time."
The suspect will be charged with vandalism and recklessly endangering an officer.
The officer meanwhile we're told has fractures to his foot and toes.
