Cops: Officer hurt in Olney hit-and-run

A police officer was hurt in Olney Tuesday night after cops say a man he pulled over fled the scene in a pickup truck, dragging the officer a full block down the street.

Cops said the officer, of the 35th District, headquartered at Broad Street and Champlost Avenue, pulled a man in a Ford F-150 over on Olney Avenue near 3rd Street shortly before 8 p.m.

The man provided the officer with his license and registration, Chief Inspector Scott Small said, and then began acting suspiciously and reaching under the seat. Small said officers asked him to get out of the truck and he refused, then took off at a high rate of speed when one of the cops opened his driver's door, dragging the officer.

"When I got on the scene, the officer was still lying on the street. His pants were torn," Small said.

The officer suffered road rash and cuts and bruises throughout his body, but was conscious and talking when he was transported to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where police said he is getting X-rays and is in stable condition.

Small said the suspect fled east on Olney Avenue and north on Rising Sun Avenue before police lost sight of him. The truck was later found unoccupied on Ormes Street near Olney Avenue.

While the police are withholding the suspect's name, Small said it is "only a matter of time before he's caught" since cops have his license and registration.

The suspect is described as a 27-year-old man with tattoos on his arms, shoulders and neck. He is 6 feet 2, 170 pounds and wore a white tank top and dark cargo shorts.

Police said the suspect's last known address is in Norristown and cops there were checking that location for him while Philadelphia Police checked locations he is known to frequent in the city.

Around 9 p.m., Small said police recovered a handgun discarded in the street on Tabor Road not far from the scene. They were investigating whether it had been tossed by the suspect.