A police officer was attacked shortly after attempting to save the life of a man who had overdosed.
In New Orleans, an officer found herself in the hospital due to an unexpected violent encounter with a man in a parking lot on Friday (May 2).
Raychel Willey was dispatched to respond to a report of a man experiencing a drug overdose inside an SUV at a Walmart parking lot in the Lower Garden District on Tchoupitoulas Street at 10:37 AM when the situation escalated.
The 34-year-old officer and Navy veteran administered Narcan, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses, which quickly brought the man back to consciousness.
However, the man reportedly became alarmed and attempted to escape by starting his vehicle and driving erratically.
Willey was dragged several feet as she was still attached to the vehicle.
While racing through the parking lot, he collided with a parked car and hit an innocent bystander before Willey managed to draw her service weapon and shoot the man in the chest, as confirmed by the New Orleans Police Department.
Willey fell from the vehicle and ended up beneath the truck, while the man managed to drive to the next intersection, crashing into two more cars.
Medics from the NOPD rushed to the scene to provide emergency treatment to both the suspect and the injured officer.
Although the driver’s identity has not been disclosed, he succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. Willey, a mother of two, sustained several injuries but is in stable condition and expected to recover.
The bystander, a woman, received treatment for minor injuries.
NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick commented, “Here our officer was trying to give aid to someone to try to help them and save them and it turned on a dime,” according to The Daily Mail.
In a press conference, Kirkpatrick added, “Our officer was in a life and death situation. When that suspect awoke from a result of the Narcan being administered to him, he acted very erratically. We don’t know if it was backed up, all we know is that he took off, with her, in the doorjamb of that car,” as reported by WDSU.
In a statement, the NOPD detailed, “While rendering aid and administering Narcan, the individual allegedly drove away from the scene suddenly with the officer still physically attached to the vehicle. The injured officer, still caught up in the chaos, managed to draw her service weapon and fired several shots into the vehicle.
“While he fled, the suspect struck another parked car and rammed into an uninvolved bystander, further escalating the danger.”
The incident is currently under review by the NOPD Public Integrity Bureau’s Force Investigation Team.
Having been with the department since 2016, Willey has been placed on administrative reassignment pending the investigation’s outcome, following standard protocol.
Witnesses at the scene recounted the incident, with one woman telling WDSU she was concerned about the officer’s injuries.
“I didn’t know when I lost sight of the officer where she was at, but I do know that because it was the driver’s side she was hanging out and it hit on that side that she was underneath the car.
“The officer had to use her revolver, her service weapon, to try to stop the person.”
“She looked like superwoman,” the witness added.