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Suspect Arrested In San Francisco Officer Dragging

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - San Francisco police announced that they arrested on Monday a suspect wanted for aggravated assault of a police officer in an incident in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood that happened on Friday.

On that day, officers stopped a tan sports utility vehicle at Buchanan and Fell streets to question the driver as part of an active narcotics investigation, police said.

An officer was standing at the car's driver door questioning the driver when the man apparently reached for a large amount of suspected narcotics in the car's center console, police said.

The officer reached into the SUV to stop the subject from grabbing the suspected drugs, but the suspect simply shifted the car into "drive" and took off, police said.

The officer was dragged alongside the car for several feet before he was able to dislodge himself, police said. The officer suffered minor injuries but did not require hospitalization, police said.

A back-up officer at the scene fired one bullet at the fleeing suspect vehicle, police said. The car was struck, but no one was injured by the shot, police said.

After some investigation, police determined that the driver was 62-year-old Oakland resident Elmer Stewart, police said. Stewart was arrested at 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon, police said.

Stewart - who was on federal probation for a previous drug-related offense - has been charged with felony counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer and evading a peace officer, as well as one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest, police said.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)

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