A man managed to flee police in an officer’s cruiser about noon Thursday.
A Virginia State Police trooper stopped around mile marker 46 on Interstate 66 in Prince William County, Va., just before noon because of a pedestrian in the eastbound lanes. An Arlington County police officer stopped to assist.
As police approached the pedestrian, he became hostile and began banging on the trooper's car, according to state police. As police tried to take him into custody, he struck the officer in the face, jumped into his cruiser and fled.
The trooper chased the man eastbound on I-66, on to Route 29 and on to westbound I-66, state police said. Around mile marker 47 in Fairfax County, state police and Prince William County police encircled the cruiser and forced it on to the shoulder, where the cruiser finally stopped.
The man ran from the stolen cruiser to a pickup truck, which was among the traffic that was stopped because of the police activity, according to state police. He jumped into the bed of the truck, grabbed a shovel and started swinging it at police as they approached.
The man eventually obeyed orders to drop the shovel, but he wasn't surrendering. He jumped the jersey wall to the shoulder of the eastbound lanes of I-66 and fought with a trooper and a sergeant as they took him into custody, police said.
The Arlington officer was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. The trooper and sergeant who apprehended the man also suffered minor injuries but were not taken to the hospital.
The suspect, 37-year-old Dexter Gibson, of Herndon, was charged with grand larceny, carjacking, eluding police, two counts of malicious wounding, two counts of destruction of property and six counts of felony assault on a police officer.
