PORTLAND (AP) – A Waldoboro police officer faces months of recovery from lower body injuries after two bank robbery suspects rammed their stolen pickup truck into his police cruiser on Route 32 in Jefferson and pushed it on top of him.

Officer Jeff Fuller said his assailants tried to kill him and might have succeeded if another injured officer hadn’t fired a single shot at the pickup before it sped away.

The suspects, Michael Kelley, 30, and Stephen Otis, 25, both of Westbrook, were being held at the Lincoln County Jail in Wiscasset following their appearances Thursday in Lincoln County Superior Court.

Kelley was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail and Otis on $20,000 cash bail on charges of bank robbery and aggravated attempted murder.

From his bed at Maine Medical Center, Fuller described the incident that began Tuesday morning when a man armed with what turned out to be a pellet gun held up the Gardiner Savings Institution in Newcastle, left with cash stuffed into a backpack and took off with an accomplice in a heavy-duty pickup with dual rear wheels.

Fuller and Detective Sgt. Ken Hatch of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office were in pursuit of the truck when it suddenly stopped in the middle of Route 32 and the two officers stopped their cruisers behind it.

“When we got out, they put the truck in reverse and pretty much ran over us,” said Fuller, 35.

Keith Taylor, who watched the drama unfold from his home, said the pickup reversed at top speed, with tires spinning and smoking, and rammed Fuller’s cruiser so hard that both vehicles lifted 4 to 5 feet off the ground.

Fuller was behind his car when the truck pushed it into him. “I went down. I never got a chance to get up,” he said.

The pickup pushed his cruiser’s rear and front wheels over his lower body, Fuller said. He was trying to get his head out of the way of the truck, which was still backing up, when Hatch drew his guna and fired at the pickup.

“I was just wondering when it was going to end,” Fuller said.

Police chased the truck back to Newcastle, where it hit spike mats and rolled over an embankment. Police arrested Kelley and Otis after a chase into woods.

Otis said Kelley robbed the bank and both men told police that Kelley was behind the wheel of the pickup, according to an affidavit.

Fuller suffered a broken left leg and broken pelvis and his right leg was dislocated from his hip.

He said it could have ended worse and he hopes to return to work on the police force.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, https://www.pressherald.com