Mount Vernon Police Chase Ends In Crash, Gunfire In The Bronx

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A police pursuit that started with a traffic stop in Westchester County ended with a crash and gunfire in the Bronx Tuesday.

As CBS2's Andrea Grymes reported, it all began with a traffic stop that ended with a driver arrested and his passenger injured.

Witnesses described pure terror as a black car careened up and down Bronx Boulevard on the sidewalk, with Mount Vernon police hot on its tail.

"They were just chasing at him shooting at him, trying to blow out his tires, trying to stop the guy -- but he was not stopping," said witness Gerson Diaz. "He was hitting everything in sight and not wanting to stop."

It all started when the male driver took off after Mount Vernon police officers tried to pull him over at Fulton Avenue and 4th Street just after 9 a.m. Tuesday, police said.

Officers chased the vehicle into the Bronx, where witnesses said the black sedan with Massachusetts plates drove on the sidewalk on both sides of Bronx Boulevard.

The vehicle went north and then turned back around, intentionally ramming into a Mount Vernon police vehicle, prompting police to fire their weapons, Mount Vernon Acting Deputy Chief Roy Hastings said.

Shell casings could be seen next to more than a dozen lime green evidence markers, WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported.

The vehicle ultimately crashed into a metal barrier next to the pumps of a Gulf gas station at Bronx Boulevard and 233rd Street two and a half miles from the original scene, Grymes reported.

"The guy they were chasing took my bumper off my car," said witness Delilah Martorell.

Martorell was one of several people on Bronx Boulevard at the time.

"When I got in the car, I see this car coming on the sidewalk and I hear the shooting so I grab my mother and I duck down, because I didn't know where the car was going to hit my car."

"I parked my car and I heard the cops come in and I just heard 'pop, pop, pop, pop,' and I just laid on the floor," said witness Rosie Dotson, "and I was just praying to God to watch over me and protect me."

Diaz had been pumping gas at the Gulf station just before the crash.

"They surrounded him; told him to get out. He was not cooperating," Diaz said. "Took about four, five minutes to drag him out of the car. They got him out he was fighting all the while."

A woman running from the car was shot, and the driver was pulled out of the driver's side window and taken into custody, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported. Charges against the driver are pending, police said.

The woman is being treated for a non-life threatening injury to her shoulder at Jacobi Medical Center .

An officer was treated for minor injuries sustained during a struggle with the suspect, police said.

The NYPD, the Mount Vernon Police Department, and the Bronx District Attorney's Office are investigating the incident.

In:
• Peter Haskell
• Mount Vernon
• The Bronx
• New York City Police Department