A Savannah-area man is now in custody after he was caught on video from a policeman’s body cam dragging the officer with a car, police say.
Police released body cam video Wednesday of an officer being dragged by a suspect outside of a Southside Savannah gas station.
The stunning incident happened Saturday night at the Shell service station on White Bluff Road. The officer was not seriously injured. He was responding to a shoplifting call when he spotted the driver as a possible suspect in a fake check cashing a month ago.
Police were looking for Brandon Christopher Adams, age 23, who they say was the driver of the black Ford Focus sedan.
Adams on Thursday evening surrendered to police, WJBF-TV reported. Adams is charged with aggravated assault and felony obstruction of an officer.
On the video released Wednesday, the officer can clearly be heard asking the driver at least four times to take the keys out of the ignition. However, the driver keeps playing with his cell phone, claiming that he needs to call “my brother” before he does anything else.
“Sir, I’m calling my brother first,” the driver keeps repeating while staring at his cell phone screen.
Two seconds later, after the suspect says again that he is going to call his brother — the officer is reaching inside the car to take the keys from the ignition just as the driver guns the engine and screeching can be heard.
In the 51-second video, the car’s engine can be heard growing louder as the car starts to move faster. Video shows the officer trying to hang on briefly and then tumbling over and over.
Police said that the officer managed to roll away from the car to avoid being run over by the rear wheels.
While falling on the pavement, the officer can be heard groaning. The officer then is heard saying a “car just dragged me down the street!”
