COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — A man is in custody after a Collierville Police officer was run over by a Corvette at a hotel early Saturday.
Police set up a crime scene at the Fairfield Inn and Suites at Highway 385 and Houston Levee in Collierville overnight.
The officer was taken to Regional One hospital in critical condition. Officials said the officer had fired his weapon during the incident.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued a Blue Alert for a suspect, identified as Keith Houston Jr., 32. He was wanted by the Collierville Police Department and the TBI for aggravated assault on a police officer Saturday morning.
Houston was located and arrested by Shelby County authorities a few hours later. The Corvette had not been found.
Collierville Police said the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office called them around 2:30 a.m. and told them a shooting suspect was believed to be in their jurisdiction. A Collierville officer went to the Fairfield Inn and spotted the suspect’s vehicle.
“As the officer approached the vehicle, the suspect drove at the officer, forcing the officer onto the hood of the suspect vehicle. As the suspect was fleeing the scene, the officer fell off of the vehicle and the suspect drove over the officer. During the incident, the officer did discharge his firearm at the suspect,” Collierville Police said in a statement.
The suspect vehicle, a 2017 white Chevy Corvette, TN tag 5P92H5, sped off in an unknown direction, police said.
The TBI is handling the investigation.
Families in town for a soccer tournament say when they booked their room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Collierville, they never expected to hear gunshots outside their windows.
“When I saw the blood, I didn’t know what had gone on until we talked to a friend, and they told us what happened,” Catherine Barron said.
Hotel guest Rickey Barnett described the scene.
“The officer was approaching the car. He had his gun drawn,” Barnett said. “I guess when he ran the plates he could tell the guy was wanted for something so he was approaching the car, the car went to go run him over and he got a couple of shots off.”
As he drove off, the officer was knocked onto the hood of the car and then run over.
“That just tells you how dangerous their job is, and what they do for our community every day when they go out to work, so I am just appreciative to have brave people like that trying to protect all of us,” Barron said.
People who stayed at the hotel said several kids had been in that parking lot a few minutes before it happened.
“Kids had just been out here playing, because the soccer tournament is right down the street, that is why we are here,” Barron said. “Kids were just outside playing around 10:30, 10:45, so it is really nerve-wracking to think that that happened right after that.”
This incident comes a day after Collierville marked the one-year anniversary of a mass shooting at a Kroger grocery that killed one and injured 13.
