NORTHAMPTON — An Easthampton man, who told police he was on his way to get prescription medication to treat pain associated with his cancer, pleaded not guilty to hitting and injuring a Northampton police detective with an SUV on Wednesday.

Zakaria Fakhir, 61, appeared in Northampton District Court Thursday to answer to charges of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs and serious injury and negligence, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, willfully obstructing an emergency vehicle and a miscellaneous municipal motor vehicle ordinance/bylaw violation. He also pleaded not guilty to a civil charge of not possessing his driver’s license.

Judge W. Michael Goggins ordered Fakhir be held on $500 bail and imposed conditions that Fakhir not operate a motor vehicle or consume alcohol or any drugs if he posted bail.

Fakhir’s employer is listed as the Holyoke Police Department in court documents and Holyoke police confirmed that he is an auxiliary police officer in that city. The Holyoke Auxiliary Police Division is a volunteer, trained and uniformed division of the Holyoke Police Department that assists the department’s field operations, according to its website.

Fakhir was allegedly driving a black Hummer H3 that hit Northampton Detective Brendan McKinney just before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday on New South Street. McKinney, who sustained non-life threatening injuries, has worked for the NPD since 2012 and been a detective since November 2015.

Shortly before the crash, McKinney had pulled over a Verucci scooter. Fellow Northampton Police Officer Andrew Kohl arrived on scene to assist with the stop and parked his cruiser behind McKinney’s vehicle and the scooter.

After speaking with McKinney and the driver of the moped, Kohl returned to his car. McKinney followed, remaining outside of Kohl’s cruiser and resting his forearms against the open driver’s window, according to Kohl’s written statement.

It was at that point the Hummer struck McKinney, according to court documents.

McKinney traveled into the air, spun clockwise and was briefly pinned between the Hummer and the cruiser before falling to the ground near the front of the cruiser and rolling to the sidewalk, according to Kohl’s statement.

“As Detective McKinney reached the sidewalk, he crawled over the curb and (lay) on his back and could be heard yelling in pain,” Kohl wrote.

Kohl wrote that he saw McKinney had “road rash” on his right thigh and left calf and that McKinney complained of knee pain and trouble breathing and stated he could taste blood. He also had a scraped chin and bruising to his left rib cage, according to Kohl. McKinney was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield where he was treated and released later that day.

Following the crash, the Hummer pulled over in front of the parked scooter and Fakhir got out of the SUV. The driver of the scooter told police he saw Fakhir get out of his SUV and said Fakhir looked like a “zombie” and “deer in the headlights,” according to a report from Officer Dennis Liptak. A second witness told Liptak that the Hummer had been behind her as she traveled from Easthampton to Northampton and was swerving and only “inches” from her rear bumper, according to Liptak’s report.

After McKinney was hit, Kohl called for additional officers, including Officer Jeffrey Staples. When Staples arrived on scene he approached Fakhir, whom he described as having “a blank stare on his face,” Staples wrote in a police report.

Fakhir told Staples at the scene that he has liver and pancreatic cancer and was on his way to his doctor to get his prescription for more Oxycodone which he takes for pain, Staples wrote.

“I asked Fakhir what happened and he was unable to provide me with an answer at this time,” Staples wrote.

Staples asked Fakhir if he had taken any drugs or alcohol to which Fakhir said he had not. Later though, Fakhir said he took two Oxycodone pills around 8 a.m. that day, according to court documents. When searched at the station, police located on Fakhir a prescription bottle of Lorazepam, an anti-anxiety medication that is commonly used to treat nausea in chemotherapy patients.

In addition to striking McKinney, the Hummer struck an SUV police cruiser, which was dented on the driver-side door with a black streak and a bent side-view mirror. Another side-view mirror was on the ground, seemingly from the Hummer, which was missing a mirror on its passenger side.

Fakhir’s next court date is scheduled for August.

Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.

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