Woodstock Man Charged With Hitting Cop With SUV

KENNESAW, GA -- A Woodstock resident was charged late Friday evening in connection to an assault on an officer who attempted to conduct a traffic stop on Interstate 575.

The Cobb County Police Department is investigating the incident, which was reported around 10:23 p.m. July 14 near the Barrett Parkway overpass in Kennesaw.

A uniform patrol officer was trying to pull over the driver of a silver 2001 Nissan Pathfinder, who allegedly failed to obey the traffic direction of an officer at a nearby crash site, Cobb police said.

As the cop was moving from the passenger to the driver's side of the SUV, the driver, identified as 41-year-old Rafael Alberto Diaz-Brito of Woodstock, "accelerated the SUV, striking and throwing the officer onto the hood," the police department added.

When the injured officer got up from the ground, he fired his service weapon at the driver as he fled southbound on I-575. The driver and his occupant were eventually stopped by a marked Cobb police car on Cobb Parkway at the Canton Road connector.

Neither the driver nor his occupant was injured by bullets from the officer’s service weapon. Diaz-Brito was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, fleeing and attempting to elude and other related traffic charges.

The officer injured during the incident was transported to an area hospital where he was treated and released.

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