'Please stop:' Officer caught in car that drove for 'several blocks' in Northwest DC, police say
WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - Metropolitan Police Department officials say an officer was caught in a car that continued driving for "several blocks" in Northwest D.C. Friday afternoon, leading to the officer and the suspect going to the hospital.
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MPD says the incident happened in the 700 block of Kennedy Street NW. They say the call came in around 4:55 p.m. for an officer making a traffic stop.
Police say officers were flagged down by someone in the area who saw a person chasing someone with a gun.
Officers checked the area and found the suspect fitting the description.
"As they engaged that individual, officers had him stopped," said DC Police Chief Robert Contee III at a press conference shortly after the incident. "One of the officers felt a firearm in his waistband area, a violent struggle began between that individual and several of our officers."
Police say the suspect was able to break away from the officers and ran to a nearby alley where he got inside a car they believed belonged to him.
"Once inside that vehicle, our officers chased him and engaged him a second time," Chief Contee said, "as they tried remove him from the vehicle and also the firearm they felt on him."
Contee says as this was going on, another officer entered the car through the backseat to try and get the suspect out. That's when the suspect put the vehicle in gear and drove off.
"The person was driving for several blocks," said Contee. "The officer was in the rear seat of the vehicle pleading with the person, ‘Please stop, please stop, please stop!' The person did not stop the vehicle and at some point during that drive down Kennedy Street, a shot was fired by our officer, striking the individual."
Contee says the officer then jumped from the moving vehicle. The suspect later showed up at an area hospital where he is being treated for his injury.
Contee says the suspect has critical injuries, but they are not sure if they're life-threatening.
He also says they are still looking for the suspect's vehicle and say it was a dark or black colored Jeep. They say there could be more evidence inside.