Waukegan cop dragged by stolen car during gas station getaway
(FOX 32 NEWS) - Waukegan Police tried to arrest the driver of a stolen silver car Saturday night as they stopped to pump gas.
Police surrounded the vehicle and tried to get inside, even breaking out a back window but the driver was determined to get away.
With a police officer hanging onto the inside of the driver's side door, the suspect took off sending the officer flying off the car
"The officers sustained some minor bumps and bruisings, you can imagine being thrown from a moving vehicle that can have its toll on you, he is expected to make a full recovery," Waukegan Police commander Joe Florip said.
A man in a barber shop across the street captured another angle of what happened on his cell phone, posting it on Facebook.
Despite the tension of the moment, and perhaps because of what's now called the "Ferguson Effect," the officers did not fire their weapons at the suspect.
"Our officers did have their weapons out, our officers did have their weapons trained on the vehicle, in a situation like that understand that that vehicle is now a weapon. It is being used inappropriately it is being used as a 2,000-pound projectile, for lack of better terms. I applaud the restraint that the officers had," Florip said.
Police said they have some good leads on the driver but have not found the vehicle.
"It's a matter of time before we find a vehicle and we hope the find the vehicle unoccupied so that we don't have to go through a dangerous situation like this again," Florip said. "This was a danger to the community, it was a danger to the officers, it was a danger to the office and the people who are at the gas station just shopping and getting gas."