A young Buffalo police officer with less than two years on the job was struck by a vehicle as he was chasing a suspicious person on foot near Broadway on Friday night, and police officials believe the officer was struck intentionally.

Officer James O’Donnell, 24, of the Ferry-Fillmore District, was taken to Erie County Medical Center, where he was being treated for head injuries, including a possible concussion and facial lacerations, police said.

His injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, officials said.

“It appears to be an intentional striking of the officer,” Buffalo Po-

lice Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson said during a brief news conference in front of ECMC. “The vehicle did not attempt to stop as it struck the officer.”

The incident began at about 8 p. m., when O’Donnell — described by Gipson as a “very active, very involved officer” — responded to a call of a suspicious person in the Broadway-Emslie Street area, about five blocks east of Jefferson Avenue.

O’Donnell encountered several people, got out of his vehicle and chased one of them on foot through nearby yards, on Emslie and Krettner streets, before crossing Broadway and going north on nearby Grey Street.

“As the officer was running down Grey Street, a vehicle came up behind him and struck him,” Gipson said. Emergency personnel responded to an 8:16 p. m. call of an “officer down.”

The police commissioner was asked whether he thought there was any link between the driver whose vehicle struck the officer and the person being chased.

“It appears to be some kind of connection,” Gipson replied.

O’Donnell, who has been on the force for a year and eight months, has a father with the same name on the force, Lt. James O’Donnell.

“We’re just hopeful that he has a full and speedy recovery,” Gipson said outside the hospital, as he fielded cell-phone calls from concerned members of the force.

After the officer was struck, fellow officers fanned out from the scene, looking for both the car that struck O’Donnell and the person he was chasing. Police believe the car was a dark vehicle, possibly a four-door model. Officers scouring the nearby area believed they found the vehicle, that struck O’Donnell, but they haven’t been able to confirm that. “At this point, there is no car, and there is no one in custody,” Buffalo police spokesman Michael J. De- George said late Friday.

Anyone with any information about the vehicle, its driver or the suspicious person being chased is asked to call the police department’s confidential tip line at 847-2255.