Officer hospitalized after being dragged by car

By Matt Rocheleau, Globe Correspondent

A Boston police officer was hospitalized Sunday after being dragged by a car driven by a man trying to escape police. Just before noon, undercover officers saw a man pull over the silver car he was driving and watched as he allegedly bought drugs in the area of Devon Street and Vaughan Avenue in Dorchester, Boston police said in a statement. Other officers driving a marked cruiser stopped the car on Columbia Road. As they walked up to the car, it sped away, dragging one of the officers. Exact details were not available. The officer, whose name was not released, was hospitalized at Boston Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, the statement said. Officers later arrested Eric Nelson, 46, of Weymouth on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, failure to stop for an officer, resisting arrest, and possession of heroin, the statement said.