(AP) — A Honolulu officer was assaulted Thursday by a man who took off in the officer’s police vehicle, prompting a two-hour chase across Oʻahu from the North Shore to downtown Honolulu.

The officer had pulled over one of two vehicles that had been speeding and driving hazardously in Laie early Thursday, Honolulu Police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan said. The driver of the vehicle assaulted the officer with what Logan described as a crowbar or something similar.

The driver then got into the officer’s police-subsidized vehicle. Officers chased the vehicle through the North Shore to the freeway, where the suspect drove east and west for two hours before going into downtown Honolulu and stopping at ʻIolani Palace, Logan said.

The palace is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where the chase started.

The officer was taken to a hospital where he was in critical condition with injuries to his head, Logan said.

The suspect was arrested on suspicions of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, theft, unauthorized control of a vehicle and resisting arrest. He was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Logan said.

Photos on local news sites showed the police vehicle outside a gate to the palace.

 

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