This is the moment a teenage driver sped off after a routine police stop, dragging a PCSO along with him.
PCSO Kieron Poole feared he would fall under the wheels and die as the motorist drove through a car park.
Seconds earlier, the officer had smelled cannabis on Muhammad Nadeem and asked him to turn the car’s engine off. Instead, Nadeem, who was 18 at the time, sped away and dragged the PCSO with him for nearly 30 metres, ignoring his pleas to stop.
Eventually, Kieron broke free – and took the keys with him. Nadeem fled on foot and was followed by the officer into a dead end. Then, he charged at him again before fleeing towards Smethwick High Street.
Kieron followed Nadeem for around five minutes and guided colleagues in to make the arrest. In the car was a hammer and an axe, and Nadeem had a small amount of cannabis on him.
Bodyworn 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, now 19, of Florence Road, Smethwick, said he was ‘shocked’ when shown the footage and admitted it ‘doesn’t look good’. He went on to admit 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 at 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 affect 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.”