Police officer hit by car, injured while responding to crowds in North Philadelphia

A Philadelphia police officer was hospitalized with a broken ankle after he was hit by a car early Sunday morning while breaking up a large crowd on Broad Street, authorities said.

The driver fled the scene, investigators said. A couple of other officers also sustained minor injuries trying to disperse a group of 500 people and vehicles that had gathered at around 1:45 a.m. on the 1300 block of N. Broad Street in North Philadelphia, according to police.

In the hours before, similar car meet-ups had been broken up without incident on the 5700 block of Tacony Street in Wissinoming and on Roosevelt Boulevard at Byberry Road and Haldeman Avenue in the Far Northeast, authorities said.

“Another violent weekend in Philadelphia and not one word from our elected leaders to address this illegal behavior or lend support for our rank and file police officers,” Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 President John McNesby said Sunday in a statement.

Last month, while responding to an unsanctioned car meet that had overtaken I-95 near Penn’s Landing, state troopers fatally shot 18-year-old driver Anthony Allegrini Jr. Likewise, several other meets or “sideshows” had been reported earlier in the evening.