Queens Jeep driver overturns after 10-mile NYPD chase ends in crash
A 21-year-old man driving a Jeep with a fake license plate led police on a 10-mile chase through Queens until he crashed into another car and overturned, cops said Wednesday.
The crash came as cops switch up their tactics on handling police pursuits after a handful of headline-grabbing incidents, including one in August when a driver in a stolen car fleeing police injured 10 people after he careened across a busy Manhattan sidewalk.
Police spotted the 2020 Jeep SUV idling outside an ATM at Merrick Blvd. and Francis Lewis Blvd. in Laurelton around 11 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.
Wondering if the driver had something to do with a string of ATM robberies in the area, cops tried to pull the Jeep over but driver Ethan Sohan sped off into the night, officials said.
Sohan jumped on the Cross Island Parkway and sped north, cops said, shutting off his headlights as he zipped in and out of traffic and putting other drivers at risk, police said.
He exited the parkway near the UBS Arena and, still with his headlights off, starts barreling down residential streets, forcing a handful of people to dodge out of the way, according to cops.
As he neared the corner of 209th St. and 35th Ave. in Queens Village he sideswiped a Nissan Altima and overturned, ultimately crashing into a parked car, police said.
Neither he nor his passenger were harmed, cops said.
The 47-year-old man driving the Nissan suffered a minor injury and was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens for care, police said.
Cops charged Sohan with vehicular assault, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and driving a vehicle with a forged license plate. He was not immediately linked to the ATM robbery spree, cops said. His passenger was released without charges.
Sohan lives in Queens Village, according to cops.
It was not immediately clear if one NYPD cruiser was pursuing Sohan’s Jeep the entire time or if the officers had radioed ahead and other NYPD officers picked up the tail.
An email to the NYPD regarding the tactics in the pursuit were not immediately returned.
The NYPD has no formal definition of a vehicle pursuit — although a working group should have one by year’s end — and has no data regarding how many chases officers have been involved in.
The department this past summer tweaked its approach to vehicle pursuits, opting to use drones and other forms of technology to track fleeing suspects, particularly those sought for less serious crimes. Cops are also communicating more with suburban authorities about suspects heading into or out of the city and opting when possible to have cops create roadblocks ahead of a suspect rather than speed behind them.
The measures, put in place to reduce the risks posed by chases, were taken after several cop car crashes occurred following a public pronouncement that police were not going to let fleeing suspects get a pass.
“People thinking they can take off on us — those days are over,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference in July, “The days of driving around this city, lawless, doing what you think you’re going to do — those days are over.”
By the end of October, 30 cops have been warned and received intervention by NYPD brass about how they conduct car chases yet more needs to be done, critics have said.
