Police officer struck by car in Strawberry Mansion

A Philadelphia police officer was injured during a traffic stop Thursday in Strawberry Mansion when the motorist he had pulled over tried to grab his gun and then drove into him while making his getaway, police said.

As the car sped from the scene, Joseph Kochmer, 32, a five-year veteran of the force, fired one shot at the vehicle, but it did not strike the driver, police said.

The incident began at 11:38 a.m., when Kochmer and his partner stopped a Chevrolet Impala with an Ohio license plate at 32d Street and Susquehanna Avenue. The officers ran the driver's license and vehicle information, but when they returned to the Chevy, the man displayed "extremely nervous behavior" and was moving around within the car, police said.

The officers asked the man, later identified as Dominique Fallins, 23, to exit the car, but he refused. Instead, he tried to grab Kochmer's handgun, and when that failed, he tried to pull Kochmer into the vehicle before driving off - striking the officer and dragging him a short distance, police said.

Kochmer's right leg was injured during the struggle, and he was taken to Temple University Hospital for treatment.

Fallins was found several blocks away, on the 2500 block of North 32d Street, suffering from "minor abrasions to his left arm from glass particles," police said. The Chevy was found about a block away, on the 2400 block of Napa Street.

Fallins, of the 2100 block of North Stanley Street, was expected to be charged overnight with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and related offenses.