LITTLE ROCK — Malvern police hunted for a wounded man they say shot a patrol officer during a scuffle in an isolated area early Friday.
The officer stabbed the assailant with a pocketknife after being shot, Malvern Police Sgt. Doroteo DelaCruz said, noting that it was possible the knife was still lodged in the man's chest.
The shooting occurred about 1 a.m. near River Oaks Drive on the city's northwest side. The officer, who authorities would not identify, was on a routine patrol when he spotted a man in a neighborhood under construction.
The bearded man, dressed in camouflage clothing, tried to hide from the officer and took off running when the officer tried to talk to him, DelaCruz said.
The officer chased the man toward some nearby woods, where they wrestled. The officer was shot in the arm, and then he grabbed a folding knife with a 3- or 4-inch blade from a pants pocket and stabbed the suspect, DelaCruz said.
The man dropped the gun and fled, the sergeant said.
The injured officer was treated at a hospital and released.
Police would not say if the assailant was armed with a gun when the officer approached him or whether he managed to take the officer's sidearm during the altercation.
"It's under investigation," DelaCruz said Friday afternoon, while the manhunt continued.
Authorities used search dogsto track the assailant's scent, and officers secured the perimeter of the wooded area where they thought he was hiding.
Police questioned two men they spotted in the vicinity Friday and arrested them on outstanding warrants. But they were cleared in the officer's shooting, Dela-Cruz said.
By Friday afternoon, police still were searching for the assailant, who was described as a 230-pound white man who is at least 6 feet 2 inches tall.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 04/19/2008