By Kim Bell
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — A car thief trying to escape from police grabbed a police officer’s shirt and dragged her for nearly a block last night as the car made its getaway, police say. The man who did it is still on the loose.
The 34-year-old police officer suffered a broken wrist and cuts and bruises to her arms, hands and knees. She was treated at a local hospital and is expected to be okay, said St. Louis Police Department spokeswoman Erica Van Ross.
The officer has been with the St. Louis Police Department six years. Her name is not being released.
The incident began about 11 p.m. Thursday. Police spotted a stolen car in the 900 block of Chain of Rocks Drive, which is in Bellefontaine Neighbors on the border with St. Louis. The female officer walked up to the car to try to nab the person inside.
Police say a man in the car grabbed the officer’s shirt and began driving, dragging her for a block before letting her go and driving off.
The suspect got away in a stolen, mid-1980s black Chevrolet Camaro. Police did not release a description of the suspect. A Bellefontaine Neighbors police lieutenant said the car had been stolen from St. Charles.
This is the latest assault against a St. Louis city police officer. The department said it doesn’t have a current count of such incidents.
On April 5, an undercover St. Louis police officer was shot in the shoulder near Chouteau and Boyle avenues and a bullet fragment grazed him above one eye. Police said that officer, 31, was lucky to be alive. He had been working with an undercover unit, patrolling with a partner in an unmarked police car, when they drove by a group of pedestrians. One of the men made a motion as if he had a weapon, police said. The officers made a U-turn. As the officers got closer, one or more of the people opened fire. At least nine shots were fired. Both officers got out of the car and took cover. They did not return fire, police say.
In an unrelated case, a St. Louis man was charged Thursday with assaulting a city officer the day before.
Isaiah Wilbon, 27, of St. Louis, was charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, property damage and possession of marijuana on Wednesday night
Copyright 2009 St. Louis Post-Dispatch