Bellevue Motorcycle Cop Hit by Car During Pursuit of Robbery Suspect

A Bellevue Police motorcycle officer ended up at Overlake Hospital Medical Center after being struck by a car during the pursuit of a suspected robber from Bellevue Square Friday afternoon.

The man suspected of robbery at the was caught and arrested in the courtyard of a downtown apartment complex, said Bellevue Police Det. Tory Mangione.

One block of Main Street in downtown Bellevue was closed for more than two hours while police investigated the crash.

Around 12:30 p.m. Friday, the suspect allegedly was seen by J.C. Penney security taking two boxes of shirts, Mangione said. When security confronted the man, a Bellevue resident about 23 years old, he pulled out a knife ran through and into Main Street, according to Mangione.

"Had he not pulled a knife, it would have just been a shoplift, but he pulled a knife and that turned it into a robbery," Mangione said. 

The Bellevue man was apprehended within seven minutes of the original call, Mangione said.

Shoplifting is a misdemeanor or felony depending on the value of items taken, while armed robbery is always a felony, according to the Revised Code of Washington.

While officers set up a perimeter around the Old Bellevue neighborhood to find and arrest the suspect, a motorcycle officer with his lights and sirens on was driving in the 1000 block of Main Street near the Chevron Station when the car in front of him turned left, instead of properly yielding to the right, Mangione said.

The officer was thrown from the motorcycle, was able to get up and walk around, but was taken to Overlake Hospital Medical Center for evaluation, Mangione said.

The investigation in the crash is ongoing and it has not yet been determined whether that driver would get a citation for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, Magione said.