Small woman punches IMPD officer in Kroger shoplifting

Police are looking for a woman who punched an officer in the face after he caught her stealing liquor from a north-side Kroger store.

The officer was off-duty and working a security job about 2 a.m. at the Kroger in the 1300 block of East 86th Street when he stopped the woman as she tried to leave without paying for several bottles of liquor, according to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department news release.

Police said the woman, described as "small in stature," punched the officer in the mouth, bloodying his lip. There was a struggle, during which the officer hurt his forearms, hands and knuckles.

The woman broke away, police said, and ran out of the store and into a vehicle. Police said she jumped into the driver's lap and ordered him to take off.

"The officer, still a bit discombobulated, gathers himself and makes notification via his police radio that suspects are fleeing in a car," police said in the news release.

The officer, who was not identified in the release, got into his squad car and followed. He caught up with the suspect's vehicle shortly after a fiery crash on Westfield Boulevard.

The vehicle struck a utility pole, flipped over and was catching fire, police said. Firefighters arrived and rescued the driver. The woman was gone. Police searched but couldn't find her.

The driver, Joshua Draper, 28, Indianapolis, was taken to St. Vincent Hospital in critical condition. Draper had been wanted on warrants for possession and dealing cocaine, resisting law enforcement and possession of marijuana.

Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @vicryc.