Alleged car thief shot and wounded by NYPD in Queens
JAMAICA, Queens (WABC) -- Police shot and wounded an alleged car thief, and a second suspect is in custody following an incident in Jamaica, Queens
It ended just before 10 p.m. Sunday on 97th Avenue and Allendale Street in Jamaica.
But it started a short time earlier and a few blocks away, on 101st Avenue.
A man told police he left his keys inside his Acura, the engine still running.
Two men jumped in and took off.
"The officers tracked the victim's cell phone, which was still inside the vehicle, to 97th Avenue between Allendale Avenue and Liverpool Street, where they spotted the stolen car with two males still inside," said NYPD Chief of Patrol Juanita Holmes.
Officers tracked the victim's cell phone and found the car on 97th Avenue.
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Newly obtained cellphone video shows how it ended.
You can see the back of the stolen Acura pressed against the passenger side of an NYPD van.
It was that collision, Holmes said, that led an officer to open fire, wounding one of the suspects.
"As the officers exited the marked police vehicles, the suspects accelerated in reverse at a high rate of speed into a marked police van," said Holmes. "One officer discharged his firearm and struck the 28-year-old male in the chest."
Police say the wounded suspect was the passenger, and that he is in stable condition at Jamaica Hospital.
The 21-year-old driver was taken into custody without incident.
No police officers were injured.
But neighbors are questioning if the use of force was necessary.
"The suspect didn't charge at them. They didn't do anything," said one resident.
The woman who shot that newly obtained cellphone video said she was outside when the shot was fired.
"They was at a full stop," she said. "They didn't go in reverse or anything. They didn't hit the police vehicle. They was already stopped when they let off that shot."
So far the NYPD would only refer us to the official statement delivered on camera overnight.
As is always the case when an officer discharges their weapon, an internal investigation is underway.
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