College Park Police Officer Ivory Morris shared from his hospital bed the thoughts that were racing through his head when a teenager ran him over while driving a stolen car.
The officer was hurt early Saturday morning on Sullivan Road, as reported by Fox News.
What are the details?
“You know, I was thinking when I was on top of that car, I had the other hand free to reach for the gun, but I said I don't want to pull it. It wasn't the use of force; I was thinking they was somebody's kids. I was like I don't want to hurt this kid. I didn't want to take nobody's kid away from them,” Morris stated for the news outlets.
Sgt. Jean Robinson, the officer’s supervisor, was not surprised by the way he reacted even though, she says, he did have the right to use force.
“He cared enough about this juvenile, despite his own life being at risk, to save his life, and didn't want to take this child's life,” Sgt. Robinson said.
Officer Morris was off duty in the area, doing a different job, when he suddenly got an alert that a stolen vehicle was nearby. He spotted the SUV at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, but it took off.
The officer got closer to a 15-year-old boy who was walking away from the car. That’s when the stolen car came back.
“At that point, the young man actually jumped on the hood of the car and investigator Morris was able to catch him, but the suspect told the driver to ‘go, go, go.’ The driver then fled at a high rate of speed causing the officer to fall off the vehicle,” the sergeant told the news outlet.
The driver didn’t hesitate to flee after the incident. Both the officer and the teen were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Sgt. Robinson is convinced an angel was watching over the officer.
“Because he saved that young man and he didn't take that driver’s life and he very well could have,” Robinson concluded about the College Park incident.