By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

NORTH FAIRMOUNT - Two Cincinnati undercover drug officers shot and injured a suspect Friday after he dropped a sawed-off shotgun while running, then stopped to pick it up.

The officers said that during a drug investigation they called for a uniformed officer to pull the suspect over in his car.

But the suspect did not stop. He got out of his car and ran, with officers chasing him. As he ran, he either dropped the gun or it fell out of his clothing, police said. When he picked it up and pointed it at Officers Colleen Deegan and Chris Vogelpohl, they both fired.

The suspect was hit in the shoulder. He was conscious and talking as he was taken from the Beekman Street scene in an ambulance, said Lt. Kurt Byrd, department spokesman.

Investigators found the gun at the scene.

Department policy allows officers to shoot if they think their lives are threatened. Officials from the department's homicide and internal investigations units there are reviewing what happened. The independent Citizen Complaint Authority also will review the incident.

Deegan, 28, joined the force in 1999. Vogelpohl, 31, has been an officer since 1998.

It was the first time a Cincinnati police officer shot at a suspect in almost exactly a year. Andre Sherrer, a suspected burglar, was killed Feb. 9, 2003, in Northside.

Email jprendergast@enquirer.com