Suspect Rams Two Florida Officers With Car, Leaving Lieutenant With Brain Injury

Bradenton, United States – A suspect rammed two Florida police officers with his car as he reversed at high speed outside a Wawa store, leaving a lieutenant with a traumatic brain injury, police said.

Body camera footage released by Bradenton Police Department shows Lieutenant Perry Merrill approaching a silver car in the store's forecourt in the early hours of Sunday, November 8. The camera lurches and goes dark as the vehicle moves, and an on-screen caption later says Merrill sustained a traumatic brain injury when he was hit and is recovering.

Police said Merrill and Officer John Bembry were the first to arrive at 3:22am after a report of a disturbance involving a man with a firearm at the Wawa on 1st Street East. They tried to stop the man, later identified as Dejerrian Murray, from putting the car in reverse, and he reversed into both officers, the department said.

Two other officers fired at the vehicle as Murray drove away, police said. After a pursuit towards the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and back into Bradenton, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper used a PIT maneuver to stop the car a few blocks from the store. Murray had minor injuries and was being held without bond, the department said, and faces charges including aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the officer-involved shooting, police said.