Kentucky: Officer struck by ATV

The name of the officer wasn’t released as of deadline Saturday night. He was taken from a Towne Mall parking lot behind Longhorn Restaurant by Hardin County EMS with unknown injuries and later was airlifted to a Louisville hospital. He wore a neck brace as he was placed in the ambulance.

The officer stopped the vehicles after a witness said the operators had been driving “crazy’’ through parking lots at Lowe’s and Walmart. The driver of the ATV then struck the officer with his vehicle and left the scene. The other two drivers remained and after they were questioned by two EPD officers, they were placed in the back of a squad car and taken away.

“They were going fast and popping wheelies in the parking lots,” witness Benji Elliott said of the three drivers. “They were going in and out of traffic.”

EPD spokesman Virgil Willoughby said Alex Dowell, 34, of Elizabethtown, is wanted for questioning “in reference to an injured police officer’’ that occurred Saturday night. Dowell also is wanted for fleeing and possession of a controlled substance.

A witness who would not give his name said the officer was struck and dragged by the ATV.

Several bystanders looked on in the parking lot as EMS personnel surrounded the officer providing treatment.