Video shows cop pinned by own cruiser as it kept rolling after he jumped out to stop a fight
Shocking video showed a Massachusetts cop nearly getting crushed by his own police cruiser that kept rolling when he jumped out to stop a fight.
The officer was seen jumping out of the cruiser as he arrived to break up a couple of vagrants slugging it out in Worcester last Thursday.
It almost immediately started rolling away — with the unidentified cop trying to open the door seconds after slamming it shut, just to realize it was locked.
The panicked-looking officer then got in front of the runaway car and tried to put the brakes on himself — putting himself in harm’s way as the cruiser kept rolling, pinning him against the back of a small black hatchback parked several feet away.
Miraculously, the officer appeared unhurt — and reached for his radio to call for backup as two Good Samaritans raced over to help.
“It was just a crazy moment, man — the cop got out, and the car kept going,” witness Oscar Sanchez, a cook who works at a sub shop across the street, told WCVB 5 Boston. “The door locked on him, and he went in front and I thought he was going to get crushed.”
“I saw the car going … so as soon as I see it stop, I just ran and helped him out,” Sanchez said. “He gave me the key, I jumped in the car and put it in reverse. And that was it.”
Somehow, the cop walked away unharmed.
“His body shielded the other car,” Alma Martinez, the witness who filmed the video, told the station. “I’m surprised he’s OK, he looked fine.”
But the two vagrants who were fighting were not so lucky.
The video also showed the two going at it — with one of the men grabbing a big object that looked like a tire and hitting the other man with it.
One of the homeless was lying on the ground when the cop rolled up, with the aggressor standing over him.
Cops separated them, then arrested Anthony Watson, 37, and charged him with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Sanchez said Worcester has a terrible homeless problem, and certain areas are known to be off-limits for regular people.
“It’s really bad,” Sanchez told the station.
The Worcester Police are investigating why the car kept rolling. Neither vehicle was damaged.
“I mainly believe he was doing a good job, and he was trying to save the situation,” Sanchez said of the officer.
“Mistakes happen to all of us. Sometimes you think you put it in park, and you don’t.”