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An OPP officer shot at a suspect who had just punched a uniformed Ottawa police officer in the face during a Saturday afternoon traffic stop on a busy street.

This is the vehicle witnesses say the suspect was driving when he was pulled over by one police cruiser. http://t.co/v4xsKRzaV2 —

Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) October 25, 2014

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The suspect was not hit by the bullet, but he was later Tasered, cuffed and taken from the scene in an ambulance.

Peter Dickson, who was standing outside a restaurant in the strip plaza across the street from where police had stopped a black sedan, said two officers had asked the man to step out of the car and put his hands on the trunk.

“He starts moving away from the officers and he bolts,” Dickson said. As he was trying to dart through four lanes of traffic, the suspect nearly got hit by a car, Dickson said. He described the suspect as a 5-10 black man weighing about 200 pounds.

“The two officers are chasing him, and he flattened one of the officers right down on the ground,” Dickson said.

That’s when a man wearing a red sweatshirt came from a black SUV that had been parked in the corner of the strip plaza lot “for hours,” Dickson said.

“This guys comes out of nowhere and he pulls out a pistol,” he said. “And then I heard a crack, one shot.” He said at least one other plainclothes officer appeared, coming from the other side of the road, near a Shoppers Drug Mart.