A New York police officer used his cruiser Tuesday to effectively bring down a woman who was threatening motorists and bystanders with a gun at a Long Island intersection, video shows.
At approximately 2:20 p.m. Aug. 15, police in Long Island responded to reports of a woman firing a gun into the air at a busy intersection in North Bellmore, the New York Post reported. “She was in the street and then she came more toward the sidewalk and then she got in the middle of the road and that’s when she started waving the gun,” witness Samantha Decarolis told News12 Long Island.
#BREAKING On the scene of an incident in Bellmore at the corner of Bellmore & Jerusalem Ave. Being told a woman fired a weapon into the air. An officer was taken to a local hospital for observation. Person who fired the gun is in custody at at a local hospital. @News12LI pic.twitter.com/qss9djcjYf
— Jon Dowding (@JonDowding) August 15, 2023
Decarolis was on a lunch break with a friend who recorded the incident, according to the outlet. In the footage uploaded to Reddit, the unnamed woman can be seen entering the intersection, waving the gun and pointing it at motorists and bystanders. In the next moment, tires can be heard screeching as a squad car comes barreling into view, sideswiping the woman and knocking her to the ground. (RELATED: Customers Take Down Would-Be Shooter Who Pointed Gun At Bartender In Epic Video)
“Protocol on the police department is that deadly physical force spurs deadly physical force,” Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said of the take-down, according to News12. “If somebody has threatened deadly physical force against you or another, you have the right to use deadly physical force, and they chose it through their vehicle and they stopped the individual.”
The 33-year-old woman was taken to a local hospital, where she remains in police custody. While her exact condition is currently unknown, she reportedly suffered minor injuries. Ryder praised the actions of the quick-thinking officer, who was also taken to the hospital for trauma observation, calling him their “hero of the day.”