WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — A West Valley City officer is recovering after he was hit by a car during a drug investigation in West Valley City.
Police said the officer was checking on a car that looked out of place in the parking lot of an LDS church.
The officer approached the vehicle and found two people inside, one of whom had drug paraphernalia in his lap.
After knocking on the window and waking the suspects, the officer opened the door and told the driver to turn off the vehicle.
Instead, the suspect is accused of putting the car into reverse and striking the officer with the open car door.
"You can't train for every scenario, so the officers try to use as much caution as they can. In this scenario, they did try to place their vehicles in positions to keep themselves safe and approach in a cautious manner, which probably resulted in them not being harmed any worse than they were. But, yeah, certainly a scary situation for the officers this morning," said Lt. Mike Fossmo, West Valley City Police Department.
Another officer used a police cruiser to block the suspect's car. Both people, a man and a woman, were arrested. The driver could face a felony charge of aggravated assault on a police officer.
The officer who was struck is expected to be OK.
