A Center Point man with a violent past is now charged with attempted murder in the pistol-whipping of a Birmingham police detective during a traffic stop Friday morning. 
 
 Police today identified the suspect as 34-year-old Janard Shamar Cunningham, also known as Janaris Shavar Cunningham. He has at least a half dozen convictions dating back to 1999, and as many arrests in which charges were dismissed during the same time period. 
 
 Cunningham is charged in the beating of a detective who is a six-year veteran of the force. Authorities said Cunningham stole the detective's gun and then repeatedly hit him in the head until the detective stopped moving. 
 
 Police have not publicly released the name of the detective, but said he was released from UAB Hospital Friday evening without being held overnight. He is now resting at home with his family, said Lt. Scott Thurmond. 
 
 It all began just after 11 a.m. Friday when the detective, in plain clothes and an unmarked car, stopped a maroon 2012 GMC Yukon in the 9100 block of Parkway East in the Roebuck Plaza, possibly in connection with some burglaries in the area. He approached the vehicle, and told the suspect to stay in the SUV while he waited for a marked unit for backup. 
 
 Cunningham got out of the vehicle despite the officer's demands, and began to question the detective about why he was being stopped. A tussle followed and the suspect assaulted hit the detective in the head with his own weapon. 
 
 The detective issued a plea for all available help over the police radio at 11:15 a.m. The detective was rushed to UAB Hospital, with police blocking off downtown intersections to make way for the detective's arrival via ambulance. 
 
 Police chased the SUV to the Roebuck Springs neighborhood about one mile away and set up a perimeter. Nearby W.J. Christian School was put lockdown during the search. Dozens of officers and U.S Marshals were on the scene. Tracking dogs were brought in to help search for a possible third suspect, but authorities later said they believed there was no remaining suspect. 
 
 The second man taken in to custody with Cunningham has not been charged with any crime, Thurmond said today. 
 
 Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper had this to say about the incident Friday afternoon: "This incident underscores the danger that our officers and others experience every day. I think about the recent murders of the Memphis and Shreveport police officers and recognize we too could have lost an officer today. We ask the community to keep this officer and his family in your thoughts and prayers." 
 
 Cunningham has a criminal history dating back to at least 1999, and was just arrested in June for driving without a license . He was convicted in 2011 of disorderly conduct; 2006, second-degree assault; 2003, robbery and assault; 2000, three counts of receiving stolen property; 1999, breaking and entering a vehicle. 
 
 In addition to those convictions, Cunningham has been arrested multiple times during the same time period on charges including assault, attempted murder, robbery and menacing, but those charges were dismissed. He also has a string of traffic violation citations. 
 
 Not long after the attack, photos began to surface on social media showing the detective lying face down on the pavement. Another photo showed him bloody and kneeling, but awake. In some cases on Facebook, the photos were accompanied by words of support for whoever beat the detective. 
 
 That, police say, is outrageous. Officers are angry that any photos were shown at all, but even more so that there were some who mocked the incident. "He was laying there lifeless and people were standing around taking pictures,'' said Birmingham police Sgt. Heath Boackle, president of the Fraternal Order of Police. "If the tables were turned, and that was a suspect lying there, they would be rioting." 
 
 There is a continued sentiment that police officers are at war, and Boackle agrees. "You're only going to win a war if you have a good partnership, and right now the local police officers don't have that,'' he said. "The boots-on-the-ground officers across this country are at war, and if we do not have the help of citizens and local governments to stand behind us, we'll never win." 
 
 Boackle said officers everywhere are hesitant, given the national climate. "There is a saying that 'he who hesitates is lost' and that's why (the detective) lost, because he hesitated,'' Boackle said. "If the officers on the streets were not in fear of losing their jobs, it wouldn't have gotten to the point it did yesterday. Officers are second-guessing every move because they're afraid they're going to be judged, by the media and by the public." 
 
 "If the officer would have shot him, then he would have shot an 'unarmed man.' Instead, he took the gun from the officer,'' Boackle said of Friday's incident. "The officer had every right to shoot him. We're lucky we're not talking about him killing the officer." ||||| (CNN) A Birmingham, Alabama, police detective who was pistol-whipped unconscious said Friday that he hesitated to use force because he didn't want to be accused of needlessly killing an unarmed man. 
 
 "A lot of officers are being too cautious because of what's going on in the media," said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous for the safety of his family. "I hesitated because I didn't want to be in the media like I am right now." 
 
 Details of last week's incident in the Birmingham enclave of Roebuck remain sketchy -- such as how did the suspect get the officer's weapon -- but the six-year police veteran said he didn't shoot the man who attacked him during a traffic stop because of the outcry surrounding a spate of police shootings nationally. 
 
 "We don't want to be in the media," he said. "It's hard times right now for us." 
 
 The scene where an officer was assaulted in Alabama. 
 
 Heath Boackle, a sergeant with the Birmingham Police Department and president of the city's Fraternal Order of Police, said Thursday that cops are "walking on eggshells because of how they're scrutinized in the media." 
 
 "We should be thanking the good Lord because he could be dead right now.," Boackle said of the detective who was beaten. 
 
 Police Chief A.C. Roper sees the episode -- as well as the reaction, including celebratory and vitriolic comments posted online alongside images of the wounded officer -- as symptomatic of a larger problem, in which some don't respect law enforcement. 
 
 "The nobility and integrity of policing has been challenged," Roper said. "As a profession, we have allowed popular culture to draft a narrative which is contrary to the amazing work that so many officers are doing everyday across this nation." 
 
 Detective struck with his own weapon 
 
 The incident occurred last Friday when the detective was on his way to interview a robbery witness and saw a car that was carrying at least two people traveling erratically on the interstate, according to police. 
 
 "He calls for backup and tells the man to stay in the car, but he didn't," Boackle told CNN in a phone interview. "The last thing the officer remembers is getting sucker-punched in a parking lot. The next thing, he's waking up in a hospital bed with staples in his head." 
 
 According to Boackle, the detective spoke to Janard Cunningham, who was sitting the car. The detective decided to call for backup so that he could continue his robbery investigation while another officer handled the traffic stop. 
 
 While he was calling for backup, Cunningham allegedly exited the car and became aggressive, approaching the detective and repeatedly questioned why he'd been pulled over, the union chief said. The detective considered using force but thought better of it and continued his call when Cunningham hit him, Boackle said. 
 
 Cunningham is accused of then "pistol whipping" the officer with his own service weapon, Boackle said. 
 
 The officer suffered multiple lacerations to his head and face but is expected to recover from his injuries, according to Boackle. The University of Alabama-Birmingham treated and released him the same day. He's recovering at home and has not yet returned to duty, Boackle said. 
 
 Chief calls reaction 'absolutely inhumane' 
 
 Adding insult to injury: several bystanders, instead of helping, took pictures of the bloodied officer as he was facedown on the concrete and posted the images on social media, where the officer was mocked. 
 
 Many people rose to the officer's defense, but the detective's colleagues were outraged by a collection of posts that seemed to revel in the beating. 
 
 "Pistol whipped his ass to sleep," one user wrote, employing the hashtag #FckDaPolice. Another mockingly offered the officer milk and cookies for his "nap time." 
 
 Roper, the Birmingham police chief, called the fact bystanders would take pictures of an officer being beaten rather than help him, then proceed to post them, "absolutely inhumane." The online commenters only made it worse. 
 
 "It really speaks to the lack of their morality and humanity," the chief said. "People commented on the pictures in a celebratory fashion ... disregarding that this public servant has a family and is committed to serve in some of our most challenging communities." 
 
 Police support officer, who is 'doing much better' 
 
 Some Birmingham officers feel that "if the roles were reversed, there would be demonstrations" and an "outcry from the public," Boackle said. 
 
 "The officer was beaten and just left there. People were there long enough to take pictures of the officer full of blood and put it on social media. ... No one stopped to help," he said. "We're lucky we're not talking about an officer who was shot and killed with his own weapon." 
 
 CNN affiliate WBRC tweeted a photo depicting the bleeding officer. 
 
 Birmingham Police say this Detective was pistol whipped Friday after stopping a vehicle at 9150 Parkway East. pic.twitter.com/dGSNteoMT2 — Kelvin Reynolds (@Fox6Kelvin) August 8, 2015 
 
 According to the city's police chief, the officer is "doing much better than he was on the day of the attack." Roper said his department stands firmly behind a man who he called a "good officer through these years." 
 
 "I gave him a direct order," Roper said. "Your mission is to get better and to spend time with your family. He gladly accepted." 
 
 Suspect charged with attempted murder 
 
 Cunningham allegedly fled the scene but was apprehended later Friday, police said. He is charged with attempted murder and is being held without bond. A second man taken into custody with Cunningham has not been charged with a crime, police said. 
 
 Tracking dogs were brought in to help search for another possible suspect, but authorities later said they believed there was no third person. 
 
 Cunningham, 34, of Center Point appeared in court Tuesday where his first hearing was postponed, CNN affiliate WBRC reported . His mother told Jefferson County District Court Judge Shelly Watkins that the family would be hiring a lawyer, according to the Alabama Media Group , a collection of news outlets that includes The Birmingham News. 
 
 Paperwork on file in Watkins' office had no lawyer listed for Cunningham. His mother hung up on a CNN reporter seeking comment, and a subsequent voice message left for her was not immediately returned. 
 
 "I feel that in today's society, both from law enforcement and the citizens, we have to trust in one another and do the best we can for this world as a whole," Boackle said. 
 
 Said the officer who was beaten: "I appreciate everyone's support. I have a concussion and I'm still heavily medicated. Right now, I need to focus on healing and getting better."
– An Alabama police detective says he was pistol-whipped into unconsciousness with his own gun because he didn't want to be the newest cop vilified for killing an unarmed man, CNN reports. "I hesitated because I didn't want to be in the media," he says. The Birmingham detective, whose name has not been released, stopped a car for driving erratically on the freeway last Friday. The driver allegedly defied orders to remain in his vehicle and began questioning the detective about why he was stopped. A scuffle ensued, and police say the driver grabbed the detective's gun and beat him with it, reports al.com. The attack left the officer in the hospital with a concussion and staples in his head. Other officers eventually arrested 34-year-old Janard Shamar Cunningham and charged him with attempted murder. The union president for the police department tells the New York Daily News that officers on the street "are walking on egg shells" because of the media, and the pistol-whipped detective agrees. He says "a lot of officers are being too cautious." The Daily News reports photos of the injured officer taken by bystanders went viral on social media, with many people mocking the officer and police.