It happened at the intersection of Almaden Blvd. and San Carlos Street, closing the area for about 2.5 hours. It was a very dangerous crash and the person who caused it may have gotten away if not for one employee at a nearby Hilton Hotel.
Around 5:45 a.m., a San Jose police officer was behind the wheel of his patrol car on Almaden Blvd. waiting at a red light at San Carlos Street when a speeding Cadillac hit him from behind. Both cars slid into the intersection leaving a pool of broken glass in their wake.
Both the officer and the driver were hurt but the driver tried to run. "Got out of his car and attempted to flee," Lt. Paul Messier explained.
The injured officer yelled for him to stop and then got some unexpected help. "A security guard here at the Hilton Hotel ended up tackling the suspect and holding him until we could get some other officers to arrive." Messier said.
That fast-acting security guard was lucky because he could have been caught up in the crash.
"One of our security officers had been standing outside the officer's car, literally just stepped back as the officer was about to leave, stepped back onto the sidewalk and thank God, very fortunate, that's when the accident occurred," Hilton Hotel General Manager John Southwell told ABC7 News.
The guard went home to sleep after a very eventful night shift. You can picture him however you like. The general manager of the hotel calls him shy and says he is "a teddy bear."
"He's a hero almost every day in big and small ways. So, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that this is actually what happened," Southwell said.
The driver of the Cadillac faces a felony hit-and-run charge at the least and will be taken to jail after he's medically cleared. Neither his nor the officer's injuries are life-threatening.
