A D.C. police officer shot and injured a man in Southeast Friday morning while looking for a suspect who hit a woman with a pipe, police say.
Just after 10 a.m., a woman called 911 and said a man hit her with a pipe in the 1300 block of Good Hope Road SE, D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said.
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WATCH HEREThe woman gave police a description of her assailant and told them which direction he'd gone. Officers started canvassing the road on foot as paramedics treated the woman, Contee said.
An officer saw a man who matched the woman's description of the person who attacked her, according to Contee.
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SIGN UP "As the officer was approaching him, he kind of abruptly got into the passenger side of a burgundy vehicle,” Contee said.
A woman was sitting in the driver's side of the burgundy Jeep, police said.
There was a struggle between the man and he officer after the officer told the man to get out of the vehicle, Contee said.
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"He kept turning, like, this way. He’s seated in the passenger seat. His hands go up, but it's a lot that's going on. What's not happening is he’s not getting out of the vehicle," Contee said. "At some point during the course of this interaction, when the officer's saying, 'Stop reaching, stop reaching, stop reaching,' a shot is fired and the person is struck."
When medics took the man to a hospital he was conscious and breathing, Contee said.
The officer was not hurt.
Officers found a large quantity of drugs on the man who was shot, according to Contee.
The woman behind the wheel of the burgundy Jeep drove off after the man was shot, according to Contee. During the news conference, Contee urged the unidentified woman to come forward and said police need to talk to her to put the pieces together as to what happened.
He said the burgundy Jeep is missing a hubcap on a rear wheel.
Police said officers recovered a metal pipe in the area that they believe is the weapon used in the initial assault.
