NEW YORK CITY, NY - Authorities fatally shot a man on the eastbound Belt Parkway in southern Brooklyn on Saturday night, November 14, following a reported abduction in Coney Island.
During a press conference following the shooting, NYPD Assistant Chief Charles Minch, commanding officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, alongside Force Investigation Division Executive Officer Inspector Paul Muoio, said the incident began around 7:19 p.m. when a 911 call reported a possible abduction at West 22nd Street and Surf Avenue in Coney Island, FOX 5 reported.
A man and a woman called 911 together, with the male caller reporting that he saw a girl kicking and screaming inside a white van, and the female caller reporting she heard her yell, “Let me go,” several times. While still on the phone with 911, the two callers spotted NYPD officers in a marked patrol car and flagged them down to report the potential kidnapping.
Officers attempted to approach the van, but the driver drove onto the sidewalk and sped away at a high rate of speed. Officers broadcast the van’s description and license plate number over department radios.
The driver then got caught in heavy traffic on the eastbound side of the Belt Parkway in southern Brooklyn, where uniformed officers caught up to the vehicle. Authorities said officers walked up to the van and gave multiple verbal commands for the driver to get out before breaking the front passenger-side window.
At that point, the driver began driving forward and backward, repeatedly ramming both police vehicles and occupied civilian cars on the parkway. Officers tried to stop the driver using pepper spray and a Taser, but neither was effective as he continued to ram nearby cars.
In order to stop the driver from ramming into cars, officers fired their guns, striking him. Police pulled him from the van, called an ambulance, and performed life-saving measures until EMS arrived and transported him to a nearby hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital, the driver was pronounced dead.
Police located the adult woman who had been inside the white van within hours of the shooting. She was not injured. According to authorities, the woman confirmed she had been inside the van screaming and exited the vehicle before officers first arrived on the scene in Coney Island.
Investigators believe the screaming stemmed from a domestic dispute. Police said the driver was already wanted for an unlawful imprisonment last month and a domestic assault earlier this month involving the same woman. Authorities have not yet publicly released the driver’s name pending family notification.
All details and information released so far are preliminary and subject to change. The shooting was captured on body-worn camera and is under investigation by the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division.
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