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Suspect strikes officers while fleeing

PARKERSBURG — Two Parkersburg Police officers were struck by a vehicle as suspects attempted to flee late Saturday night, authorities said.

Neither officer was injured to the extent that medical attention was required, Chief Joe Martin said. The incident happened around 11 p.m. Saturday.

According to criminal complaints filed in Wood County Magistrate Court, the officers were on a foot patrol in the area of 16th and Beaver streets when a white 2012 Ford sedan accelerated down Beaver Street at a high rate of speed. Officers ran to intercept the vehicle at the stop sign at 16th and Beaver, with one officer shining a flashlight on his uniform, identifying himself as a police officer and ordering the driver to stop the vehicle and open the door, one of the complaints says.

Instead, the suspect accelerated from the stop and struck one officer, causing him to fall onto the hood, the complaint said. The other officer was hit by the driver’s side mirror, it said.

The second officer broke out the driver’s side window with the assistance of a third officer who had arrived on scene, the complaint says. Meanwhile, the first officer ordered the passenger out of the vehicle at gunpoint.

Both suspects refused to exit the vehicle and had to be dragged out by officers, the complaints said.

The driver, Dillon Matthew Campbell, 21, of 405 27th St., Vienna, was charged with two counts of attempting to commit a felony, unlawful assault, while the passenger, Gavin Richard Bennett, 21, of 16 Ashwood Drive, Vienna, was charged with misdemeanor counts of obstructing and possession of a controlled substance, marijuana.

Campbell remained in custody at the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County on a $30,000 surety bond.

Bennett was released on a $1,500 surety bond.

City Editor Jess Mancini contributed to this story.

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