Prince George's County Officer Shoots Driver Who Dragged Him During Traffic Stop

A driver in Chillum dragged a Prince George's County police officer about 150 yards along Ager Road Thursday night before being shot and crashing into a utility pole, police said. He later died at a hospital.

The incident began around 8:40 p.m. near 23rd Avenue and Ager Road at East-West Highway, when an officer pulled the man over and called for a second officer to assist. Finding probable cause to search the vehicle, officers asked the driver to step out and stand with one officer while the other began inspecting the car.

At some point during the search, the driver ran back to the vehicle and jumped in while one officer was still partially inside. He drove off, dragging that officer down the block, police said. The officer standing outside was knocked to the ground by the fleeing car, Police Chief George Nader said at a press conference Thursday night. The other officer was "partially in, partially out of the vehicle" when the driver attempted to flee, Nader said.

While being dragged, the officer fired his weapon, striking the driver. The car crashed into a utility pole. Both officers were transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and were treated and released. The driver was taken to a hospital as well, where he later died from his gunshot wounds. Police also recovered a laundry bag filled with a large amount of marijuana from inside the vehicle.

"Obviously, you never want your officers to be injured while they're out here trying to serve and protect the community," Nader said. "This is not the outcome that anybody wants. You never want to see life lost regardless of the circumstances, so I wish it could have been different. I wish that the suspect would have cooperated and let the scene play out, and if it led to an arrest, it led to an arrest. That's something he can dispute in court. When you try to dispute that in the street like this, it doesn't end well."

A Prince George's County official told reporters it remained unclear exactly why the officer chose to fire. That question will fall to the Maryland Attorney General's Office's Independent Investigations Division, which is examining the shooting as required by state law whenever an officer-involved death occurs in Maryland. Neither of the two officers nor the suspect has been publicly identified.