By Diana McFarland

Managing editor

A Windsor Police officer was injured after a Suffolk man allegedly rammed the officer as he was getting out of his car to make a traffic stop.

The officer, C.J. Griffin, was released from Sentara Norfolk General Hospital on Thursday morning. He suffered multiple contusions on his legs, according to Windsor Police Chief R.D. Riddle.

Raydrin Alexander Smith, 26, of the 100 block of Nancy Drive in Suffolk, was charged with two counts of property damage, one count of felony elude and one count of attempted capital murder of a police officer. 

The incident occurred at 6:33 p.m. on Feb. 1 as the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office, with the help of the Windsor Police Department, were conducting a narcotics operation in the town of Windsor.

Lt. James Pope with the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office said the officers were looking for a specific vehicle, but declined to comment further on the operation.

During the operation, which was taking place at in the parking lot of Windsor Food and Gas on Windsor Boulevard, a Windsor Police officer pulled up to the suspect vehicle, with his lights activated, to conduct a traffic stop, according to Pope.

The Windsor officer pulled his vehicle behind the suspect’s car, and at the same time, a sheriff’s deputy pulled up in front of the suspect’s car and inadvertently hit the suspect’s front bumper, Pope said.

In response, the suspect shifted into reverse and hit the gas pumps, causing large flames, Pope said.

The suspect then shifted forward and that’s when he hit the Windsor officer’s car and the officer, Pope said.

The suspect drove off and led deputies and the Windsor police on a pursuit that ended in the parking lot of Southern States, also on Windsor Boulevard.

The suspect remains in custody without bond in the Western Tidewater Regional Jail.