A D.C. police officer opened fire in Northwest Washington Friday as a struggle developed with someone at the wheel of a car, police said.

       A man who had been shot during the incident on Kennedy Street NW was in surgery Friday evening, said D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III. Contee said the man had been hit in the torso.

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       The officer suffered cuts and bruises, Contee said.

       The gunfire was the culmination of an incident that began shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, when officers responded to a report that an armed man was chasing someone.

       Officers stopped someone on the street and felt a gun in his clothing, Contee said. The man broke away, ran into an alley in the 300 block of Kennedy Street and got into a vehicle.

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       One officer also got into the vehicle, and a struggle ensued, the chief said.

       With the man at the wheel, the vehicle sped off with the officer in the back seat, according to the chief.

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       The officer pleaded with the driver to stop, the chief said. At some point, he fired, according to the chief.

       The officer rolled out of the vehicle, onto the street, the chief said.

       He said neither the man’s car nor a weapon had not been found.

       After police examined the recording made by the officer’s body-worn camera, Contee said apprehension could be heard in the officer’s voice when he pleaded with the driver to stop.

       Many officers were posted in the area, which had been designated for special attention in a fall crime initiative from Mayor Muriel E. Bowser.

       Three people were fatally shot in a recent incident on Longfellow Street NW, a few blocks from the site of Friday’s gunfire.

       Peter Hermann contributed to this report.