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Police Officer Shoots Suspect After Nearly Getting Hit By Car

CLARKSVILLE, Md. (WJZ) -- A dramatic scene in Howard County, as a wanted man is shot by police in a quiet neighborhood. Police say he had tried to run over an officer.

The suspect is in critical condition but is expected to survive. The officer he allegedly tried to run over this morning, was not hurt in this bizarre turn of events.

A crunched car in Clarksville is pulled from a drainage ditch, just hours after police say the driver nearly mowed down an officer and was shot in response.

"Sirens the length of the street!" says neighbor Jeanne Roberts.

It started around 3:30 Friday morning, when a neighbor called 911 for a strange car parked in their driveway. Police called a tow truck, but the driver, 38-year-old Tremayne Dorsey approached the officer.

That's when she discovered he was a wanted man.

"There was a bit of a scuffle between he and the officer, then he jumped in the car and drove directly at her," says Sherry Llewelyn with Howard County Police Department.

The officer fired her gun one time, hitting Dorsey. Most neighbors nearby tell WJZ off camera that they slept through the whole thing. But some did wake up to a gunshot, and police lights out their front window. Jeanne Roberts heard the commotion from a few doors away.

"Well, first I thought, after all, I saw with police, that it had to be a gunshot. I thought, oh no, something really bad happened in the neighborhood because there's no crime per se in this neighborhood."

Dorsey is from Prince George's County. He has multiple theft convictions and two active warrants.

"This resident did exactly the right thing. He saw something that didn't look right, it seemed suspicious, and he called 911," says Llewellyn.

Officers now investigating why Dorsey was in Clarksville in the middle of the night, in the first place. The officer is on standard leave as the department investigates. The officer involved is a 10-year veteran of the Howard County Police Department.
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