By Karen Bouffard
The Detroit News
DETROIT — Police are searching for the driver of a stolen SUV who drew police fire late Sunday for allegedly ramming police cars and trying to run down officers before fleeing in the stolen vehicle.
The incident started at about 11:40 p.m. Sunday when a Detroit undercover officer spotted a GMC SUV that was previously reported carjacked earlier in the day from the 22000 block of Fenkell and called for marked police units to investigate, according to a press release from the Detroit Police Department and the city of Detroit.
When officers from the Eighth Precinct responded to the location in marked scout cars with emergency lights activated, the SUV stopped near a gas pump at a Citgo gas station located at the corner of 8 Mile and Glastonbury, according to preliminary information from the police investigation.
While two people exited the vehicle when officers approached, the driver backed up into a Detroit police scout car and then drove forward over the front of another scout car, police say.
The driver of the GMC SUV then drove over the front of a second scout car and continued forward driving directly at a Detroit police officer who had to roll out of the path of the hurtling large SUV, according to the press release.
Since the driver of the SUV was considered to pose an imminent threat to the life of an officer, three officers fired shots, according to the police statement. At this time, it is unknown what impact the shots had and what or who they might have hit.
“The SUV actually went over the hood portion of the car barely missing the officer and then drove straight at other officers,” Detroit police Sgt. William O’Brien said Monday. “It was pretty intense.”
According to O’Brien, the suspect left the gas station in the SUV, which was later found abandoned nearby.
The two individuals who had previously exited the SUV were taken into custody. The Detroit Police Department is actively looking for the driver of the carjacked SUV and an additional unknown passenger.
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