PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — A St. Pete woman is facing charges after allegedly hitting a Pinellas Park police officer with her car during the Sacred Heart Festival over the weekend.
According to an arrest affidavit, Officer John Coleman was directing traffic leaving the Saturday event after disruption from a group of kids cut the event short. Their disruption included reports of a gun being seen and/or shots fired, as well as several fights. Despite the reports, no firearms were found at the event.
Once police got to the area where the fights were reported, attendees were reportedly running in a "stampede-like fashion," leaving some people with minor injuries.
Officer Coleman was covering the area of 80th Avenue North and 46th North Way, which was closed off to traffic.
The affidavit explains that 27-year-old Anta-Nai Selmon was driving a red Nissan Altima and proceeded to drive straight into the closed intersection, allegedly ignoring Coleman's signal to stop.
Coleman then tried to get Selmon's attention by knocking on her window, but she continued driving forward before eventually hitting the officer's leg, officials say. He suffered minor injuries.
Selmon allegedly fled the scene while Coleman still attempted to stop her on foot. The department says another officer then tracked her down to perform a traffic stop.
The officer wrote in the affidavit that Selmon admitted to being at the scene where Coleman was hurt and also admitted to ignoring his orders to stop.
Selmon is now facing charges of resisting an officer with violence, failure to obey commands of a police officer and aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.
