CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – A Coral Springs police officer is recovering Wednesday, a day after being dragged across a parking lot following a traffic stop.
Witnesses said the incident started near pump five at the Exxon gas station on Wiles Road. Police said a detective wearing street clothes, but wearing a police vest and carrying a badge, pulled over a white BMW SUV.
The driver, identified by police as Derrick Jean Pierre, 24, of Deerfield Beach, faces charges of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated fleeing and eluding, fleeing a law enforcement officer and possession of narcotics.
According to an arrest report, Pierre tried to point a handgun at Detective Brian Walker during the incident.
The report states that Walker was conducting a narcotics investigation involving Pierre's passenger during the traffic stop.
Police said the passenger was holding a small bag of suspected cocaine and there was another bag of cocaine inside the driver's side door handle.
According to the arrest report, Pierre disobeyed orders to turn off the SUV and drove away as Walker was inside the vehicle with his feet dragging along the pavement.
Police said the detective fired at Pierre after Pierre reached underneath the seat and grabbed a semi-automatic gun.
The shot fired by the detective struck a nearby building in the shopping plaza by a preschool.
"I was freaked out," one parent told Local 10 News.
Parents said they were shocked to see crime scene investigators looking at the bullet hole outside the building when they dropped their children off Wednesday morning.
"The front rooms were evacuated to the back once they heard everything going down," parent Valerie Barnwall said. "It doesn't have to do with a school shooting in general, but it's still guns out and around children. You don't feel safe anymore."
Police said three schools -- Hunt Elementary, Forest Hills Elementary and Coral Springs High School -- were placed on lockdown as a precaution as authorities searched for the suspects.
Stores in the shopping plaza also locked their doors.
Police said they took the driver and his passenger into custody a few blocks away. The officer was taken to a hospital with injuries to his arms, hands and legs.
Parents said they are thankful everyone is OK.
"I know they have the best security for the kids," one parent said.
According to the arrest report, Pierre confessed to being in the area to sell drugs and told detectives that he was aware the victim was a police officer, but he tried to flee the scene because he thought the officer was going to kill him.