UPDATE - FRIDAY: Bong Bob Kim was arraigned in the hospital Friday morning, according to state police.
HANOVER TOWNSHIP -- Charges filed late Thursday afternoon said Bong Bob Kim nearly ran over two police officers during an undercover drug deal in a shopping plaza.
Court records do not identify which Wilkes-Barre police officer fired a shot that hit Kim.
Undercover deals in public places are nothing new and some people are questioning if they should ever happen.
William Uggiano's daughter works in the plaza. He says police won't explain how the front end of her car's bumper was ripped off in the chaos.
"I'm glad that no innocent bystander got shot or run over, anything like that. All I know is my car gets destroyed and now I got to go figure out how to get this back together," Uggiano said.
Joe Lakkis, a former state trooper turned instructor at Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center, explained that the location of undercover investigations and busts are rarely picked by police.
"99.9 percent of the time, you are at the mercy of the drug dealer. They're going to operate in a zone where they're comfortable operating in, on their home turf so to speak," Lakkis explained.
Undercover deals in public places have gone bad before.
Newswatch 16 was there in August, 2012 when four troopers were hurt outside the Viewmont Mall in Lackawanna County.
Authorities say the accused drug dealer took off with the doors open on his SUV, hitting the troopers.
Lakkis says public busts are risky but often needed to get dangerous drugs and dealers off the streets.
"If you try to deviate from that, they're going to know it's a setup," said Lakkis.
"I don't think it should happen in places like this, public places like this," said Valerie Betcher.
Betcher believes these drug deals should not be allowed around so many innocent people.
Omar Redditt disagreed before he drove his sister's damaged car home.
"As long as they didn't kill him, I think they did a good job."
The police chief in Hanover Township would not say if his department was told about the plans for this undercover bust.
The officer who pulled the trigger is on administrative leave but prosecutors still won't say why this happened or if they'll continue these busts in public places.
