Milwaukee police credit a tip from a local man for the arrest of a 19-year-old man suspected of being responsible for the Dec. 25 accident that critically injured a police officer. The suspect was formally charged on Dec. 29 and could face decades in prison if convicted. Meanwhile, the injured officer continues to recover from the accident.

We previously discussed this accident in our Jan. 5 blog post. The officer and his partner were sitting in a parked squad car around 5:15 p.m. on Dec. 25 when they noticed a vehicle driving at a high rate of speed on the wrong side of the road on W. Windlake Ave. bearing down on them. The officer in the passenger seat jumped out of the squad car while the driver tried to get out of the other vehicle's way, but did not have the chance.

The vehicles collided and the officer who had gotten out was thrown into the air, landing up to 40 feet from the accident. The impact caused multiple fractures in his left leg, face and teeth, as well as bleeding in his brain. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.

The car drove off. Less than an hour later, a man in a black Chevrolet Malibu drove up to a man who rents a garage in Milwaukee's south side and asked to stow his car there. The car had front-end damage and the driver appeared intoxicated to the man with the garage, according to the criminal complaint. The man said he did not know what had happened to his car.

Three days later, the garage owner saw a TV news report about the accident and realized the man with the Malibu could have been involved. He called police, who inspected the car and found evidence that it was the same one from the accident. They tracked down the car's owner and arrested him. He was charged with first-degree reckless injury and first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

The officer remains in the hospital, but doctors have upgraded him from critical to serious condition. Using a walker, he recently was able to walk for the first time since the accident.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Regional News Briefs," Jan. 10, 2012