Video shows moped rider crash while being pursued by NYPD, tackled and arrested
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A moped driver fleeing police crashed on a Brooklyn promenade as he was being chased by an NYPD SUV, a startling video posted online shows.
The video, recorded in Bay Ridge along the promenade fronting New York Harbor near the Verrazzano Bridge, shows the cop car dangerously close to the 17-year-old moped driver as the teen veered off onto a patch of grass and slammed into a metal barrier.
Wednesday’s crash took place around 5:20 p.m., said an NYPD spokesman, who said the breakneck pursuit and arrest was “under internal review.”
The officers had attempted to pull the moped over near Bensonhurst Park along Shore Parkway and Bay Parkway when the moped rider refused to stop and sped off, police said.
Cops pursued him west along the promenade between Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge, where he crashed. The teen later told NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau investigators that the police vehicle did not strike him, said a police official.
After the crash, the teen sprinted a few feet to an adjoining parking lot, the video shows. Two cops pursued him on foot, tackled him, and handcuffed him.
“He was subsequently taken into custody on the Bay Ridge Promenade with charges pending,” an NYPD spokesman said.
The teen suffered minor injuries and remained in the hospital Friday.
The scooter the teen was riding had been stolen, said cops.
It was the second time in recent weeks that a dangerous police pursuit has been caught on video.
On May 24, a video posted on Reddit showed an NYPD SUV aggressively veering toward a moped on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens.
The video, which went viral, apparently shows the cop car making several attempts to sideswipe the driver of the black moped.
“Look at this guy! Look at him!” a woman exclaims in the recording. “Oh, my God. He’s trying to hit him.”
The NYPD could not confirm any details at the time, but said the department was aware of the video and would conduct a review.
According to the NYPD Patrol Guide, a vehicle pursuit must be terminated “whenever the risks to uniformed members of the service and the public outweigh the danger to the community if suspect is not immediately apprehended.”
