Paul Bass File Photo
Officer Hayden.
A “cop of the week” went to the hospital after almost getting run over — and the rookie he was training got a firsthand lesson in the hazards of police work.
That was the upshot of a harrowing encounter Monday on Ivy Street in Newhallville.
It occurred around 5 p.m. Officer Robert Hayden (a one-time Independent “cop of the week”) was patrolling along with Doug Pearce, who just became a New Haven cop.
They spied a 2003 Volvo XC90 parked out Lilac Street, with the engine running, in area known for drug-dealing. Hayden approached the car to see what was up.
What he saw: “sandwich-sized bags of drugs between the legs” of the driver.
He asked for the driver’s license. He got his name. Then he asked the driver to get out of the car. The driver refused, Hayden said.
So Hayden reached in to try to remove him from the car. Rookie Pearce came over the help.
Then the driver allegedly hit the gas, dragging the two cops with him a ways up the road before crashing into a fence.
“He flattened it,” Hayden said of the fence.
Hayden and Pearce fell to the ground. The driver then backed up — and almost ran them over, Hayden said.
The driver got away. Police later found his car on Ivy Street. It was empty. They were looking for the suspect on Tuesday.
Pearce was treated at the scene; he had his scarred forearm and leg bandaged, according to Hayden. Hayden went to Yale-New Haven’s St. Raphael campus to get a shot for a swollen knee. “It’s the kind of shot the NFL players get,” Hayden said Tuesday. “It worked.” He said he expects to return to the beat on Wednesday.
As for Pearce, he reported, “I think he’s going to be a good cop.”
You mean he didnt shoot the suspect 4-5 times like Floodquist did to Malik Jones?? I guess there is another way to deal with it.