Kerry Burke and John Annese
New York Daily News
NEW YORK —A hit-and-run driver slammed into an NYPD officer, fracturing his leg after he’d pulled over another motorist on a Lower East Side street Tuesday, police said.
The plainclothes housing officer was driving a vehicle disguised as an Uber when he and his partner pulled over a Mercedes for a headlight violation on E. Houston St. at Ave. D. about 7:45 p.m.
As the officers spoke to the driver outside their vehicles, an out-of-control minivan barreled into rear of the officers’ car, police sources said.
The impact crunched the cop between his own vehicle and the stopped Mercedes, said Ali Latif, the Mercedes driver.
“It played out slow in my head. One cop went down and we jumped out of the way,” said Latif, 32, an asbestos removal worker on his way home to the Bronx.
“While we were talking a black minivan swerved close. It smacked into the rear of the cop’s car. It slammed into the officer,” Latif said. “He got pinned hard. It was his legs.”
He pointed to a dent in the unmarked police car. “That dent is the officer,” Latif said.
Latif and the officer’s partner hit the ground. Neither were injured.
Medics took the officer to Bellevue Hospital with a fractured right leg, cops said.
The minivan’s driver pulled away and sped east.
“His car was stuck into the cop’s car. It took a few seconds to get loose and he peeled off,” Latif said.
Police found the gray Toyota minivan three blocks away, on Delancey St., between Columbia and Pitt Sts. and took the driver into custody.
Charges against the driver are pending. His name wasn’t immediately released.