A Cincinnati police officer accused of joining a chase while off duty and hitting the suspect with his truck has been described by supervisors as sometimes letting his eagerness cloud his judgment.

        Officer Joshua Phillips, who was reassigned to desk duty Monday, is under investigation for chasing a green Honda Civic up Colerain Avenue in Mount Airy early Saturday.

Phillips

        An on-duty officer earlier had lost sight of the vehicle and abandoned the chase, which began on westbound Interstate 74.

        When the driver jumped out of the Honda to run, Officer Phillips hit him with his truck, witnesses said, and ordered him to the ground — some say at gunpoint.

        The Honda driver, Gregory K. Orr, 30, of Colerain Township, stumbled around a little bit, according to witnesses' calls to 911, then ran.

        Mr. Orr was caught a few minutes later and charged with speeding, driving without a license and fleeing and eluding. He was treated at University Hospital and released. His arrest report said he had a head cut that required five staples.

        As Mr. Orr was on the ground, Officer Phillips called 911 himself to report that he was off duty, but that he had the suspect: “Somebody's chasing a guy, and I've got him here.”

        Officials still weren't sure Tuesday how Officer Phillips knew the green Honda was being chased, said Lt. Col. Rick Biehl.

        Officer Phillips, he said, had a cell phone, but no police scanner.

        Also unclear is what Officer Phillips did next. Some witnesses said they saw him peel out of the parking lot in his truck and speed away down Colerain.

        Roger Morgan was playing video games in his fifth-floor Airy Trails apartment early Saturday when he heard tires squealing in the parking lot. The 27-year-old man looked outside and saw a green Honda Civic speeding into the lot, followed by a black pickup truck. A man bailed out of the Honda and started to run, he said, when the truck ran into him, knocking him over.

        First, Mr. Morgan thought the truck driver held a gun on the man. Later, he realized it was a cell phone. Others who called 911 said they did see a gun.

        Mr. Morgan said he was certain from the start, though, that the driver was a police officer.

        “You could just tell by his mannerisms, by the way he put the guy on the ground — it wasn't like a civilian's mannerisms,” Mr. Morgan said Tuesday.

        Lt. Col. Biehl took Officer Phillips' badge and gun Monday and assigned him to desk duty. The 27-year-old officer, a police veteran of nearly four years, will remain there until the outcome of the internal investigation.

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