NYPD: Police shoot 18-year-old driver who aimed SUV at officer during Bronx traffic stop

NEW YORK -- A Bronx high school student remained hospitalized in critical condition on Monday. 

NYPD officers shot the 18-year-old during a tense traffic stop Sunday night in the Morrisania section of the borough. 

CBS2's Tony Aiello spoke with the young man's family at Lincoln Medical Center. That's where Luis Monsanto, a sophomore at Cardinal Hayes High School, is being kept under police guard.

Monsanto's aunt said he's a great kid who has never been trouble.

Over the phone, his devastated father told CBS2's Ali Bauman his son now needs surgery to remove part of his skull.

"He's just a good guy. He's my right-hand man. He helps me out a lot. He really loves me, man. He always has my back," Eddy Monsanto said.

The family believes Luis Monsanto was scared and confused behind the wheel Sunday night in the moment before police shot him.

"I heard four to five shots. I immediately cut off all my lights and ran to my window," said Morrisania resident Monae Smith. 

Smith said the 8 p.m. gunfire interrupted a quiet Sunday night at Boston Road and 165th Street. 

"Everyone was surrounding the driver, who I believe was shot in his head, because by the time I looked out of my window, he couldn't even stand up. They had to wiggle him out of the driver seat and onto the floor and his whole face was full of blood," Smith said. 

The NYPD said the shooting happened after Monsanto, driving a friend's SUV, ran multiple red lights and cops in two unmarked units tried to stop him. 

"The officers drove ahead of the vehicle and angled their unmarked police car with the warning lights on in front of the Jeep as a second unmarked police car, also with its lights on, approached from behind," said NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey. 

Corey said the driver "backed up and sped directly" toward a uniformed officer. Two officers opened fire, striking the driver in the head.

Sources say a female officer fired three shots.  A male officer fired once."So the department's policy is not to shoot at a moving vehicle unless something other than the vehicle is being used as a weapon. However, there is a carve out in there that gets reviewed on a case-by-case basis," Corey said.

Sources said the NYPD did not find any weapons or drugs in the SUV. 

The NYPD said body-worn cameras were being used at the time of the shooting and are currently being looked at by investigators. Although the investigation is still in its early stages, police are reviewing if the officer broke protocol by shooting at the suspect's moving car.

Monsanto's father and others in the neighborhood question the police narrative.

"Why shoot? Why shoot four times if he never had a gun? He didn't have a weapon," Eddy Monsanto said.  

"The question we have for the NYPD is that if the car was in reverse, how did it crash into A.M.E. Mount Zion Church in the front?" said Don Curtis of the Unified Black Caucus.

The NYPD's Force Investigation Division is now handling the case with the district attorney's office and interviewing the officers involved. There has been change in their duty status.

Police said there were three passengers in the car. Video shows one of them being led away after the shooting.  

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