JUPITER, Fla. -- A Jupiter police officer is recovering after being involved in a crash with a potentially stolen car. That suspect is in custody.
Police identified the officer as 28-year-old Ian Fries.
They say a license plate reader got a hit for a possible stolen car Tuesday afternoon. The crash happened near the Military Trail and Indiantown Road intersection in Jupiter at 4:30 p.m.
Fries' mom, Tara, made a surprise visit to the Jupiter town council meeting, where they just so happened to be discussing contract negotiations with the police department.
“I’m here tonight, I wasn’t expecting to speak but my son is sitting in the hospital,” she told the crowd at the podium during public comment.
“This criminal used his car as a weapon,” she would later say in an interview.
“I (saw) them jostling back and forth and when he put his lights the car started to speed away from him,” said witness Matthew Cohen. “(I heard) a screech little bit and I turned and saw the car hit the bus stop.”
Fries is a fourth-generation law enforcement, his mom said. It’s the second time she has received a call about her son.
The first was in 2014 when he was an officer with NYPD, in Jamaica, Queens.
“He was involved in the ax attack by a terrorist,” she told the crowd.
She said her son is conscious, with the worst of his injuries to his hand. Doctors had to remove shards of glass.
“Right hand has a huge gash in it. That’s why we’re just praying that everything will be OK,” she said.
She said he also banged up his knee and had bumps on his head. She said her son is on antibiotics and is hopeful to avoid surgery. He was discharged from the Jupiter Medical Center Tuesday night, she said.
She left the podium to a standing ovation.
The suspect was identified as 34-year-old Marc Anthony Brown of Riviera Beach.
He is charged with aggravated battery on an officer, firefighter, EMT and aggravated assault on an officer, firefighter, EMT.
Brown is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail.