Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Driver uses stolen car to ram Qld cop
A Queensland police officer has significant injuries after three people in a stolen car deliberately drove into him in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.
January 24, 2019
A police officer is lucky to be alive after three people in a stolen car ran him down west of Brisbane.
The officer spotted the vehicle running a red light in Toowoomba on Wednesday night.
“He’s doing a three-point turn and coming back toward me,” the officer can be heard saying into his radio on body-cam footage released by police.
When he tried to intercept the car, the driver veered across the road and rammed into the officer’s motorcycle, knocking the policeman off his bike.
“941, I’m down, I’m down, he’s run into me,” the officer says after a series of groans as he and the bike fell to the ground.
The 50-year-old sergeant suffered a dislocated left shoulder, and rib, hand and ankle injuries.
A second officer was assaulted and bitten on the arm while arresting the driver a short time later. The 29-year-old offender is in hospital under police guard and is yet to be charged.
His passengers, a man, 20, and a woman, 25, were arrested without incident.
They are facing charges including armed robbery, after they allegedly went to a Mount Lofty home earlier in the evening, threatened a resident with a knife and then stole his car.
They will face the Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Thursday.