N.J. woman held in hit-and-run of Phila. officer
A 26-year-old woman who allegedly dragged and twice struck a Philadelphia police officer in a hit-and-run during a Center City traffic stop late Friday has been apprehended in South Jersey.
A 26-year-old woman who allegedly dragged and twice struck a Philadelphia police officer in a hit-and-run during a Center City traffic stop late Friday has been apprehended in South Jersey.
The driver, whose name has not been released, reportedly was arrested at her home in Audubon.
The injured officer has been identified as Kim Kleposki, a 22-year veteran. She was in stable condition Saturday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, near where the incident occurred. Kleposki required stitches to her right arm and right leg, police said.
About 11 p.m. Friday, the suspect drove her gray Ford Focus down a street that had been blocked off by police because of construction work near 10th and Sansom Streets. Two officers in a marked cruiser pulled her over.
She complied when asked for her license and registration. But when they inquired why her headlights were off, she started to yell at them, according to police.
The officers said they smelled alcohol on her, as well as on her female passenger. They asked the driver several times to step out of the car, but she refused and kept her door locked, police said. She then turned the key in the ignition. Both officers reached into the car, which started to move.
One of Kleposki's arms became tangled in the seat belt. The driver dragged the officer until she fell to the ground, police said. The car continued to accelerate toward a crane parked on the street.
The injured officer's partner chased the Ford and tried to open the door, but the driver rolled up the window and threw the car into reverse, hitting and pinning the injured officer against the side of a construction trailer. According to police, she then pulled forward, reversed, hit Kleposki again, and headed south on 10th Street.
Kleposki was on traffic duty in 1997 when she was hit by her police vehicle, a Ford Bronco, that unexpectedly rolled forward as she stepped out of it. She was treated at Jefferson Hospital for minor injuries.
