West Midlands Police have released some body-worn camera footage (scroll down for video) of the moment when one of their PCSOs was dragged along by a vehicle.
PCSO Kieron Poole was speaking to Muhammad Nadeem during a foot patrol on a housing estate in Smethwick.
The PCSO noticed that Nadeem was sat alone in his vehicle, so he approached him to make sure that all was well.
Initially, Nadeem seemed to be polite and courteous towards the PCSO, but when asked if he had been smoking cannabis, Nadeem started his car and drove off.
The PCSO tried to grab the keys from the ignition but was dragged for over 30 metres by Nadeem as the officer pleaded with him to stop.
Eventually, PCSO Poole broke free and managed to take the keys with him, ensuring that Nadeem could not drove off from the scene.
Nadeem then fled on foot and was followed by the officer into a dead-end, at which point he charged at the PCSO before running towards Smethwick High Street.
Kieron followed Nadeem for around five minutes and guided colleagues in to make the arrest.
Officers later found an axe and a hammer in Nadeem’s vehicle, along with a small amount of cannabis.
Body-worn video captured the full horror of what happened, even the moment the PCSO returned to the scene to scoop up his hat, which had fallen off during the attack, on 25 January last year.
Nadeem admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, dangerous driving and possession of an offensive weapon and will be sentenced at a later date.
PCSO Poole, from the Smethwick Neighbourhood Team, said the driver ‘seemed quite friendly at first’, but all that changed once he’d confronted him about the cannabis.
He said: “It all happened so quickly. Before I knew anything my arm was attached to the car and I was being propelled, hanging on the side, through a couple of branches, a good 20-30ft before I knew what was happening.
“I shouted ‘Stop! Stop!’, but he wasn’t paying any attention. I knew I had to get the key out of the ignition. If I didn’t, I could have gone under his tyres, and I might not be here today.
“I decided I’m not going to let him sit back and get away with that. I’ve always been brought up to respect the police, and in that moment, I didn’t want him to get away with it.
“I instinctively chased him. He was cornered, and I was hoping he’d give up. Instead, he decided to rush towards me with a bottle and quite forcefully hit me at the side of the head with a plastic bottle. My adrenaline was going, so I felt like I could carry on trying to pursue him.
“He started walking quite casually up the street, but I didn’t want to get too close at that point thinking he could have a weapon, he’s already hit me over the head, he’s clearly going to resist, so my best course of action was to wait for the local neighbourhood units.
Kieron was left with a bruised arm but no serious injuries. He said: “It’s made me more cautious – I didn’t want to have a break from doing my job, I felt like that would have been more of a barrier to me. But I wanted things to be as normal as possible really because I didn’t want it to effect the way I worked within the community.
“I’d like to thank the quick response of the neighbourhood officers who arrived within minutes to help me.”
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What an appalling video. I hope that this man gets a good long spell behind bars. He will not of course.
In future, anybody who becomes a naturalised Brit must retain their original nationality so that they are in effect dual nationals. This should extend to their children. With such a structure, they can be stripped of their citizenship without being rendered stateless and kicked out forever.
Given that a third of our prison population is made up of foreigners, the sooner they are slung out and kept out the better. We would then have more space to robustly deal with our own criminals.