After cop is struck by car, police fire and Duke the K9 bites the suspect, police say

The 17-year North Miami Beach police veteran who was struck by a woman suspected of committing a hit-and-run Thursday afternoon is recuperating in the hospital but still in intensive care, Police Chief Richard Rand said Friday.

And the woman suspected of striking the officer with her vehicle, who was shot at by police and later bitten by a police K9, was also taken to the hospital. Her condition was unknown. Police had not released the name of the officer or the woman by Friday afternoon.

The woman is expected to be charged with the attempted murder of a police officer, resisting arrest with violence and other traffic violations, Rand said.

“She’s expected to be charged today,” said Rand. “The officer is a little bit better, but he’s still in ICU.”

The wild scene just after 1 p.m. Thursday in which an officer was struck by a car, another officer fired at the suspected hit-and-run driver and a K9 attacked the suspect, closed down busy Biscayne Boulevard at Northeast 172nd Street and some surrounding streets for several hours. Dozens of residents were stuck in their cars for hours as they tried to to get to their homes and apartments or visit friends.

According to police, the patrol officer who has been on the force for almost two decades was responding to an incident when someone ran up to him and said there had been a hit-and-run nearby. As the officer got out of his vehicle and tried to make contact with the hit-and-run suspect — who Rand said was driving a red car — she drove into him, striking his midsection between his knees and his rib cage.

Then she started to drive off. But by then, Rand said, two other officers had arrived. One fired into the woman’s car, blowing out her back window, but apparently missing her. The gunfire was enough, however, for the woman to stop the vehicle.

Immediately, Duke, the department’s trained K9, took off toward the car and when his handler opened the door, the German Shepherd jumped into the vehicle and grabbed a hold of the woman. Her injuries were serious enough for her to be hospitalized.

“She kept trying to get away,” Rand said of the woman suspected of hitting the officer.