NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A 54-year-old bicyclist was critically injured in Greenwich Village on Tuesday evening when she was struck by a Mercedes-Benz driver being pursued by the NYPD, police said.
The pursuit began at Third Street and Avenue D in Alphabet City at 7 p.m., when cops saw two men suspected of having an illegal gun.
The men fled on Houston Street in the Mercedes, but the passenger soon got out of the vehicle and was quickly apprehended by cops.
The driver continued westbound into the Village, where he plowed into the woman as she biked at Houston and Sullivan streets.
After hitting the cyclist, he also fled on foot but was tased and tackled to the ground by NYPD officers, who took him into custody, police said.
Witnesses said more than two dozen NYPD vehicles descended on the area within minutes.
The two suspects—ages 30 and 26—were awaiting charges Wednesday. At least one firearm was reportedly recovered at the scene.
Both of the men have criminal histories. The driver has at least five prior arrests believed to be for domestic violence, while the passenger has nearly two dozen priors for various crimes.
The pursuit comes after NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey put out a memo to rank-and-file officers last week to remind them about car chase procedures after civilians were injured in some recent pursuits.
“A vehicle pursuit must be terminated whenever the risk to members of the service and the public outweighs the danger to the community if the suspect is not immediately apprehended,” the Aug. 10 memo said, according to the New York Post.
Still, NYPD officials have defended the pursuits publicly, with Chief of Patrol John Chell telling WNBC this week the department is going on the offensive against fleeing perps.
“We are not going to allow this to happen anymore,” Chell told the station. “Our training, our expertise, we are pretty good at it and we are going to continue stopping cars and bikes that are breaking the law in the city.”
This past Sunday, a stolen Mercedes-Benz slammed into a family in an SUV in Washington Heights as its driver was being pursued, causing the SUV to overturn. In Midtown on Aug. 1, 10 people were injured when a stolen SUV hit pedestrians.
Police told WABC-TV that Tuesday evening's pursuit is under investigation but that speeds never exceeded 21 miles per hour.
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