Arlington officer recovering after drunk driver rams squad car

An Arlington police officer is doing well less than 48 hours after she was struck by a suspect during a police pursuit.

Officer Haley Thedford was chasing a suspected drunk driver when he turned the chase on her and rammed her squad car. The dash cam picked up the moment the suspected drunk driver rammed his pickup into the police patrol car.

"When I saw him coming at me I was terrified,” Thedford said.

Officer Thedford is shaken and sore but on Monday she was able to talk about what it was like when the police chase took an unexpected turn.

Suspected drunk driver Jose Pablo Mendez-Guerrero floored the accelerator and went straight for the officer's patrol car. Thedford tried to move out of the way, but then came the crash -- busted glass and air bags going off and for a while she couldn't move.

"I can hear his tires skidding again and he's reversing at that point I honestly think he's going to hit me again so I'm trying to crawl out of the passenger side as fast as I can,” Thedford said.

Hours later Mendez-Guerrero was found passed out at a relative's house in Fort Worth where he was arrested. Police said he admitted hitting the officer to disable her car so he could escape.

"It's shocking that someone deliberately tries to hurt someone else police officer or otherwise in that manner just to get away and not have to go to jail,” said Thedford’s mother.

It was also most 5 a.m. in east Arlington when Officer Thedford came up on the suspect at a 7-Eleven.

"He nearly struck one truck that was backing out continued coming back tires squealing to where he almost hit my patrol car,” Thedford said.

Thedford tried to make a traffic stop and it turned into a police chase with speeds of up to a 100 mph. The pickup lost control and spins out facing the patrol car and he hit the gas.

"He was staring right at me as he's coming at me at that point I know that he's gonna hit me that's his plan that's his goal,” Thedford said.

Thedford said DWI enforcement hits home for her. When she was a child a relative was killed by a drunk driver.

Mendez-Guerrero is in jail charged with aggravated assault of a public servant and evading arrest.