An off-duty D.C. police officer was hit and seriously hurt Friday by a car in a parking lot in Prince George’s County, Maryland, police there said.
Kenneth Daniels, a 23-year veteran of the MPD, was hit at about 10:40 a.m. in a parking lot just after he walked out of a store in the 10500 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Highway — the Vista Gardens shopping center, in Lanham, near Annapolis Road.
Prince George’s County Police Chief Mailk Aziz said a witness saw it happen and contacted the police; the person they believe drove the car has been stopped.
D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III said Daniels, a member of the violent crime suppression division, was a good friend of his, and that they went to high school together.
The chief said Daniels’ niece is a D.C. police officer, and his brother is a retired officer. “Keep him in your prayers,” Contee said, adding that Daniels was “just out shopping with his mom.”
Daniels is listed in critical but stable condition; he won’t need surgery, but will need more time in the ICU, said Dr. Tom-meka Archinard, senior vice president and chief medical officer of the University of Maryland Capital Region Health.
He needed CPR, but “was taken care of rapidly by colleagues and good Samaritans,” a Archinard said.
WTOP’s John Domen contributed to this report.
