By Police1 Staff
NEW YORK — A man is in critical condition after jumping into an unmarked patrol car and grabbing an officer’s gun.
The Wall Street Journal reports the 25-year-old suspect jumped into the rear passenger side of the police vehicle early Sunday while it was stopped at a red light.
The man then struggled with a sergeant in the passenger seat over the officer’s gun, which discharged in the chaos. It is unclear who fired the weapon.
The man managed to get the gun away from the officer and then fled the vehicle, where he was stopped by an officer on foot and two other officers in a patrol car.
Police ordered the man to drop the weapon. Three officers then exchanged gunfire with the suspect, who was hit multiple times in the legs and torso before being taken into custody.
“I heard ‘pop, pop, pop!’ maybe seven of them. Then a few seconds of silence. And then it started again and again,” bystander Aboualasrar Haraz told the NY Daily News.
The suspect was transported to a hospital and is expected to survive, according to the report. No police officers were hit in the shooting, but four were taken for treatment of tinnitus.