Wednesday, April 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
A teenage drug suspect shot by a Metro Police officer while trying to escape in the officer's car has agreed to a plea bargain.
Daniel Jimenez, 19, has waived his preliminary hearing in Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle's courtroom, sending the case to District Court, where he said he will plead guilty to two felony charges.
Jimenez, who spent nearly two months at University Medical Center recovering from the injuries, is set to be arraigned Thursday on the compromise charges of escape with a deadly weapon and trafficking in a controlled substance.
He originally faced charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, resisting a public officer, escape, auto theft and robbery with a deadly weapon.
Jimenez was stopped Dec. 29 for a traffic violation in the 2900 block of Maryland Parkway and then arrested when narcotics and two guns were found in his 1980 Buick.
The teenager is alleged to have slipped out of the handcuffs and jumped behind the wheel of the patrol car as officers took inventory of the drugs and weapons.
Officer Michael Richards, 25, was able to open the patrol car's passenger door and hang on as Jimenez drove off, swerving erratically along Maryland Parkway, police said.
When Jimenez refused to comply with Richards' commands to stop, the officer pulled his gun from his holster and fired a shot that hit Jimenez in the upper torso, police said.
The officer was thrown from the car before it rammed into a tree and fire hydrant.
Richards, a six-year Metro veteran, was treated at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center for leg and ankle injuries.
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