By Thomas Tracy, Kerry Burke, Rocco Parascandola and Elizabeth Keogh
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Several NYPD officers were injured Wednesday as a driver fled from a traffic stop and hit them with his car, drawing police gunfire, cops said.
The officers tried to pull over the car near the intersection of Rockaway and Shore parkways in Canarsie about 2 p.m., according to police.
Witnesses told the Daily News that the cops pulled up in an unmarked Ford and blocked the intersection. The officers, from the 69th Precinct and the NYPD housing unit, had recognized a black sedan as matching the description of a vehicle involved in a recent shooting, according to police sources.
“The police blocked us,” said Maylene Hodge, 68. “I couldn’t go.”
The black Mercedes-Benz that cops were trying to pull over was behind Hodge’s friend’s car, with those inside refusing to step out.
“The cops had guns saying, ‘Get out of the car! Get out of the car!’ ” Hodge recalled. “I got scared and got down in a crouch on the floor praying to God we didn’t get shot, and then there was gunfire.”
The Mercedes driver, stuck behind other cars at the intersection, worked to get around them.
“He was shouting, ‘Move! Move! Move!’ ” said a woman who was in front of the crazed driver. “They went around a white car to get away.”
The Mercedes sped off, hitting two officers in the legs and striking the police car on the front passenger side, witnesses said.
As the Mercedes barreled toward the officers, one cop fired off multiple shots, sources said.
“They were holding their legs but they stayed up,” said another woman who witnessed the chaos.
No one was hit with bullets, according to cops.
Medics took a total of six officers to Kings County Hospital to be treated for minor injuries, FDNY and police officials said.
“I was in shock,” Hodge said. “I’m still shaking.”
The abandoned car was discovered about one mile away, just off the Belt Parkway on a desolate stretch of road behind Starrett City, sources said.
Police were investigating the New York-plated vehicle, which was left in such a hurry that the driver’s door remained open.
Police took a 21-year-old man involved in the incident into custody, but it was not immediately clear if he was the driver of the Mercedes. Charges against him were pending Wednesday night.
Police are still investigating if the bullets damaged any property, sources said.
NYPD policy discourages shooting at moving vehicles unless something other than the vehicle is being used as a weapon. There are exceptions to this policy on a case-by-case basis.
A uniformed officer fired shots on May 28 at a driver who tried to run him down as he and his partner investigated a 911 call of gunshots near the corner of Broadway and Lorimer St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The motorist, who was behind the wheel of a Honda CR-V, was wounded, said cops.
The shooting came after officers had shot at or hit escaping cars at least five times in the previous six months.
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