By Annie Linskey
The Baltimore Sun
A Baltimore police officer was injured when he was struck as one of three men being arrested on drug charges sped away from a traffic stop yesterday afternoon on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in West Baltimore, police said.
Officers chased the car, a Ford Crown Victoria, south on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Russell and Hamburg streets, near M&T Bank Stadium, where an officer said he saw a man reach for what he thought was a weapon. Sgt. Melvin Russell said the officer fired one shot at the car, striking the hood, but did not hit anyone inside.
Russell said the incident started shortly after 1 p.m. when police stopped the Crown Victoria on a suspected drug violation at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Fayette Street and began to question the driver and two passengers.
The driver was arrested, but the man sitting in the passenger seat reached his leg across, hit the gas pedal and drove off, Russell said.
The car struck a police sergeant, who suffered minor injuries to his shoulder and was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, Russell said. Other officers chased the car less than a mile down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and onto Russell Street, and stopped it near the Ravens stadium. That is where police said one officer fired the shot at the car and the two remaining occupants were arrested.
Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman, said officers recovered illegal narcotics, a handgun and cash after a search of the vehicle. Charges were pending and names of the suspects, the injured sergeant and the officer who fired his weapon were not immediately released.
Copyright 2006 The Baltimore Sun