By Kristina Goetz and Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati Police officers investigate the stabbing of an undercover officer Friday at Jefferson and University where the officer drove after being attacked. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

Detectives are investigating whether the Friday morning attack on an undercover Cincinnati police officer was a random mugging or a targeted hit.

Officials say the 10-year Cincinnati police veteran, a member of an elite regional drug squad, left the gym at the Fraternal Order of Police lodge about midnight and was headed to meet his partner. The Cincinnati Enquirer is not identifying the officer because of concerns about his safety.

Three hours later, he was in emergency surgery to repair stab wounds to his lower abdomen.

He was in fair condition late Friday.

"There are things that have happened through this investigation that make us want to know whether this was a targeted attack, rather than a random one," Police Chief Tom Streicher said.

He would not elaborate, but said the case is being investigated as an attempted murder.

Cincinnati homicide investigators are looking for three men suspected in the attack, which happened a block south of the FOP hall on Central Parkway. They were driving either a black Ford Expedition or Lincoln Navigator with tinted windows.

"There were multiple weapons used," Chief Streicher said, though he would not say what they were.

"At least two of them are very capable of causing death in an extremely efficient manner."

Officials said the officer, who was on duty, was not shot.

Officials late Friday night were still piecing together what happened.

Police were exploring a variety of scenarios throughout the day. Around 8:30 a.m., officials distributed a news release suggesting that one suspect may have impersonated a police officer.

Subsequent statements did not include that possibility.

Officials also would not release 911 tapes or dispatch logs because they might identity the officer.

Here's what police do know: After being stabbed a block south of the union hall, the injured officer contacted his partner by radio while trying to drive himself to the hospital. Because he was having trouble driving, possibly beginning to lose consciousness, the partner and other officers met him near Jefferson and University avenues around 12:13 a.m.

Fellow officers took him to University Hospital in a cruiser.

"He was really in a tough situation this morning," Chief Streicher said. "He's one in a thousand people. He's incredible at what he does. This guy has been around a long time. He knows his business as good or better than anybody."

The officer is assigned to RENU, the Regional Enforcement Narcotics Unit, a Cincinnati-Hamilton County joint drug task force. RENU targets distributors of large amounts of narcotics. Their investigations tend to be lengthy and involve undercover buys and drug intelligence gathering. Often, the arrests are high profile.

"He operates in a very dangerous portion of the drug world, in cases that not only have local but national and international implications," Chief Streicher said.

The officer was on "an extremely sensitive assignment" and is "exposed to a tremendous amount of danger on a daily basis," the chief added.

For lack of a better term, the chief said, the officer's assignment was "deep undercover."

From Jan. 1, 2002, to mid-July of that year, the RENU team seized more than 5,500 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of more than $14 million. In October 2001, officers seized 47 kilos of cocaine with a street value of more than $7 million.

Councilman Jim Tarbell, a longtime advocate for more aggressive policing in the central city, said the attack comes at a critical time in police work.

"Of course it's dangerous, and every day these guys have to make a decision about how far they're going to go to protect people and pursue crime. I don't think anybody has any idea until they put that uniform on and go into a dark alley or dark room, what they face," he said.

FOP Vice President Keith Fangman, who patrols in Over-the-Rhine, said he doesn't know all the facts of the case.

But whether the officer was targeted is almost beside the point, he said.

"This violent incident simply underscores the fact that all citizens - including police officers and City Council members - are susceptible to crimes of violence," he said. "We hope that the community will work with us to alleviate this problem on behalf of everyone."

Anyone who has information about the incident is asked to call the Criminal Investigations Section at 352-3542 or Crime Stoppers at 352-3040. Callers may remain anonymous and receive compensation for their information.

David Eck contributed to this story.

E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com and gkorte@enquirer.com