The New York Police Department (NYPD) said they chased a taxi driver chauffeuring three women to a medical appointment in Manhattan through rush-hour traffic Thursday in the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee driver, a 33-year-old man from the Bronx, fled a traffic stop on the Queens side of the tunnel and drove over a line of traffic cones, forcing the officers to scatter, the NYPD said in a statement accompanied by a video of the incident. The SUV then disappeared into the tunnel with the police vehicles on its tail, according to authorities.
The chase ended a minute and 50 seconds later when two police vehicles hemmed in the SUV, the NYPD said. This moment can be seen in the video.
The driver allegedly resisted arrest and one NYPD officer and a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Police Department officer were injured, according to the statement.
The three Hudson Valley women — sisters aged 65 and 67, and the daughter of the older woman, 45 — also had minor injuries, police said. They were “crying” following the stop and were “shaking visibly” while speaking to police in a separate vehicle, according to the statement.
The women and the two officers were taken to hospitals for treatment. (RELATED: Dramatic Video Captures Cop’s Daring PIT Maneuver Ending 2-Hour High-Speed Chase)
Three Hudson Valley women had the ride — and the scare — of their lives on Wednesday when the driver of a taxi they were taking to a medical appointment in Manhattan led police on a fast-moving chase through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel at the height of morning rush hour.
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) September 6, 2024
The women told the officers that they had arranged for the ride via a medical transport company to get to an appointment, according to the statement.
The driver was working with a license “suspended seven times,” a vehicle bearing a “fraudulent paper license plate” and “a vehicle identification number that did not belong to the same SUV,” the NYPD alleged. The women were unaware of these alleged crimes, authorities said
The SUV had two current suspensions of registration for parking judgements and unpaid toll violations, an inspection sticker and insurance that were both out of date and overly dark-tinted windshield and windows, authorities alleged.
The driver was also wanted by the NYPD in the Bronx for domestic assault in August, according to the agency.
The NYPD called the alleged driver’s acts “dangerous exploits.”
The suspect faces a long list of charges including assault on a police officer and unlawful imprisonment, according to the statement.
The operation was part of a multi-agency operation against “ghost vehicles” and their alleged drivers.
