May 03--A 24-year-old man who started a gun battle during a traffic stop with Winston-Salem police officers is in stable condition, along with his driving companion, a 57-year-old woman, after police officers returned fire and struck them Wednesday, according to city police.
Elliott Denard Coleman, 24, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a law-enforcement officer, police said in a news release Thursday.
Around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Margaret Robbin Wilder, 57, was driving a 1994 Mazda 626 with Coleman in the front passenger seat on the 5300 block of Peters Creek Parkway near the line between Forsyth and Davidson counties, police said.
When police tried to stop the car, the driver stopped it in the middle of Peters Creek Parkway, police said.
The passenger fired a gun at police officers after he was told to drop his gun, police Chief Scott Cunningham said. Three police officers returned fire, shooting several rounds toward the car, he said.
The news release identified the man as Coleman.
Coleman and Wilder were struck, police said, and were taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, where they are in stable condition. Police have not reported where the two live.
No police officers were reported injured.
It was unclear how many shots had been fired. A photographer with WGHP/FOX8, the Winston-Salem Journal's news gathering partner, said he saw a car with several bullet holes in it.
City police and Davidson County sheriff's deputies blocked Peters Creek Parkway, from Hickory Tree Drive to Friedburg Church Road, for several hours Wednesday night.
This shooting is being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation, Winston Salem Police Department Criminal Investigations Division and the department's Professional Standards Division.
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