CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Cedar Grove police chief who witnesses say dragged an 80-year-old man off his ATV and slammed him to the concrete said in a criminal complaint that the man wouldn't follow his instructions and tripped getting off the ATV.

According to the complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court, Johnny D. Walls said that he first stopped Robert McComb for traveling the wrong way on Dawson Street. He charged McComb with a wrong way violation, fleeing an officer on an ATV and obstructing an officer.

Walls said McComb couldn't hear him at first, according to the complaint. When Walls asked for a second time if McComb had a driver's license, McComb told him he did but that it was at his house.

According to the complaint, Walls then asked McComb if he knew he was traveling the wrong way on a one-way street.

McComb said, "Well I guess you will have to take that up with Bill Gray then," and quickly drove away, Walls wrote in the complaint. It was not clear Thursday who Bill Gray is.

Walls said he yelled for McComb to stop, then got in his police cruiser, turned it around and put on his emergency lights.

"The driver failed to stop and continued traveling south on West Ward Street at approximately 30 mph," Walls wrote, noting that the speed limit is 15 miles per hour. "I then accelerated and pulled beside him and motioned for him to stop, which he did not. I then pulled in front of the ATV and stopped."

Walls said he got out of his cruiser. He says McComb tried to turn his ATV around the side of the cruiser in his direction.

"I drew my firearm and told him to stop and do not move the ATV," Walls wrote in the criminal complaint. "He stopped and stated to me, 'Buddy, you don't have to do all that!' I then told him to turn the ATV off and get off of it. He stated to me, 'No, I'm not getting off.'"

Walls said he took McComb by the left wrist with his left hand and by the left upper arm with his right hand and told him to step off the ATV.

"He attempted to pull away from me. I then pulled him forward and told him again to step off of the ATV. At this time he started to step off the ATV. As he was stepping off of the ATV one of his feet got caught on something on the ATV and he fell to the ground striking his right arm and right side of his head on the pavement," Walls wrote in the complaint.

Walls said while on the ground, McComb tried to pull away and was very belligerent and told him he had no reason to treat him this way.

"I told him to calm down while I attempted to put handcuffs on him," Walls wrote. "He continued to struggle and told me he had a bad arm. I again told him to calm down and that I would help him up. ... He kept saying I had no reason to treat him this way and that I was going to have a lawsuit on my hands."

Walls wrote that he then helped McComb up and put him in the back of his cruiser.

Karen McComb, Robert McComb's daughter, said Thursday the family had been advised by their lawyer not to make any more comments about the specifics of the incident.

Cedar Grove Mayor James Hudnall said that Walls would be fired. He is on administrative leave until Aug. 30.

"He's not going to be working here as of Aug. 30," Hudnall said. "It's in the best interest of the town. I'm not accusing him of right or wrong. That's not been determined. But I think it's in the best interest of the town that he not be employed there."

On Wednesday FBI Supervisory Special Agent Joe Ciccarelli confirmed that the FBI had started a civil rights investigation into the incident.

Walls went through three other West Virginia police departments and twice received training in Ohio before becoming a fully certified officer, according to information provided to the Gazette by the state Law Enforcement Training unit of the Division of Justice and Community Services.

He was sued for his actions as an officer in Chesapeake. William Pullen won a $36,000 settlement against the city after accusing Walls of beating him when Walls was an officer there in 2006.

Walls also had worked at South Central Regional Jail, Paul O'Dell said Wednesday. O'Dell is deputy director for the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. Walls worked at the jail from March 1, 2007, through Sept. 19, 2007, when he resigned for personal reasons, O'Dell said.

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.