After a brief car chase and search of the 1900 block of Emerson Street, Evanston police apprehended an Evanston man just after midnight on Wednesday, police said.

The man, Charles R. Calhoun, 24, of the 1000 block of Greenwood Street, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and fleeing and eluding police after nearly hitting a police officer with his car in an attempt to escape arrest, said Cmdr. Michael Perry of the Evanston Police Department.

Police responded to a call reporting a possible drug deal on the 1700 block of Brown Avenue and saw Calhoun and several other men standing next to a blue Chevy Caprice, police said.

All the men dispersed when they saw officers approaching and left the car unattended with the windows down. There was a “large, white, rock-like substance” in full view of officers who approached the car.

Police then confiscated what turned out to be 7 grams of rock cocaine, which had an unknown value, from the car, Perry said.

Thirty seconds later, another officer who had positioned himself across the street saw that two men had returned to the car and started the engine, Perry said.

When officers approached the men, they drove off at a high speed, nearly hitting an officer before fleeing, Perry said.

The car chase ended on the 1800 block of Brown Avenue when the men’s car hit the curb and a parked car. The men then fled from the officers on foot, running north across Emerson onto Brown, Perry said.

Forty-five minutes later, at about 12:30 a.m., another EPD officer reported that he had found a man who matched Calhoun’s description hiding under a red Lincoln Continental on the 1900 block of Emerson.

The man was “very dirty, out of breath and had a slight cut above his eye,” according to police reports.

Although he told police he was hiding from another man who had beat him up, the set of silver keys lying next to him fit the Chevy Caprice, Perry said.

According to Perry, while they were putting Calhoun into a squad car, he put up a struggle and tried to knee an officer twice. He also became “belligerent” at the police station and spat twice at an officer who was processing his papers, according to the reports.

Calhoun, who was identified in reports as being a member of the Gangster Disciples, has a previous criminal record, Perry said.

The other man seen returning to the car with Calhoun was not apprehended.

Calhoun awaits trial Dec. 27 at Circuit Court in Skokie. No other information about this incident was available Thursday night.