Police officers shot and killed a man on a highway in southern Brooklyn on Saturday evening after responding to reports of a possible abduction, the New York Police Department said.
The driver repeatedly rammed police and other vehicles with people inside while caught in traffic on the eastbound Belt Parkway, Assistant Chief Charles Minch said at a news conference. Officers used pepper spray and a Taser without stopping him before firing their guns, he said.
The woman whose screams prompted the report had left the van before officers first arrived and was later found uninjured, Chief Minch said. The police believed the screaming was related to a domestic dispute.
The police did not reveal the driver’s name, but said he had been wanted for an unlawful imprisonment last month and a domestic assault earlier this month. The woman who had been in the van was the victim in both cases, police said.
Two people called 911 at about 7:19 p.m. in Coney Island. One reported seeing someone kicking and screaming inside a white van, and the other said she heard the woman repeatedly saying, “Let me go,” Chief Minch said.
During the 911 call, witnesses alerted nearby police officers. As the officers approached the van, it drove onto the sidewalk and sped away, Chief Minch said.
After the van became stuck in traffic on the parkway, officers ordered the driver to get out, Chief Minch said. They broke the front passenger-side window before the driver began ramming nearby vehicles and officers shot him, Chief Minch said.
The man was taken to NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn, where he was pronounced dead, Chief Minch said.