Officer hurt after being hit by motorist

A uniformed police officer was hospitalized Saturday after being run down by a motorist who refused an early-morning order to leave the parking lot behind Philadelphia police headquarters, where he had been parked, authorities said.

Police planned to charge the unnamed suspect with aggravated assult after he allegedly pinned an officer between a concrete pillar and his 2004 green Dodge minivan just before 2 a.m., said Officer Tanya Little.

Police withheld his name and the identity of the officer, too, who suffered no broken bones and appeared to have been released from Hahnemann Hospital by early afternoon, Little said. Investigators were awaiting blood test results to see if the driver was intoxicated, she said.

The run-in happened in the rear lot used by officers, detectives and high-ranking police officials who work out of the Roundhouse, the Police Headquarters building on Race Street between 7th and 8th Streets near Independence Mall.

Two officers went to the lot behind the Roundhouse to investigate a report of a suspicious vehicle. They saw a man inside the minivan, lying down in front, and told him to leave because it was a private lot, Little said. Police park their personal cars there when reporting for shifts.

The man refused to leave and told officers "that he had a gun," Little said.

Soon after, a backup squad car pulled up behind the minivan. The motorist flipped the minivan into reverse, backed into the squad car, flipped it to drive, and ran into one of the officers as he stood on the sidewalk near the Roundhouse entranceway, Little said.

After pinning the officer to a concrete post, the motorist drove the length of the sidewalk before making at turn into oncoming traffic on 7th Street. A squad car arrested him a block away, at 7th and Arch Streets, Little said.

Contact Maria Panaritis at 215-854-2431 or mpanaritis@phillynews.com.