That decision led to wild confrontation on a bustling avenue in the borough’s court district during which a police officer, who was nearly crushed, shot the driver of the stolen car, police said.
The sequence of events began when police license-plate readers detected a car in the area that had been reported stolen. A 24-year-old officer, whom police did not identify, spotted the car and approached it when she saw three people climb inside, Terence A. Monahan, the chief of department, told reporters at the scene.
But upon seeing the officer, the driver slammed into reverse, pinning the officer against a parked car across from the entrance to the Bronx County Family Court building. She fired three rounds into the back windshield, striking the driver in the chest and left torso, Monahan said.
The officer was being treated for injuries to her hip and leg at an area hospital, police said. The driver underwent surgery for her wounds at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, where she was in critical condition, according to police. Two passengers in the stolen car were arrested.
Police did not release their names and charges against them, and an official at the scene said they appeared to be teenagers.
Monahan said the wounded driver, the two passengers and a fourth man who remained at large were involved in a robbery and carjacking spree that began early Sunday in the Bronx and traversed lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The foursome — two young women and two young men — stole two cars and robbed three people of purses and cellphones, he said.
They had ditched the first car after crashing it in Brooklyn on Sunday and then stole a charcoal-colored Hyundai Sonata, whose owner had reported it missing that same day, Monahan said.
It was the Sonata that three of the youths rode Monday morning to Sheridan Avenue and 162nd Street, where one had to answer a charge in Bronx Criminal Court, police said.
What they did not know is that police license-plate readers had tracked the car to the spot where it was parked, Monahan said. After the court appearance, the three returned to the car and were about to drive away when the officer and her partner approached, the chief said.
The wild scene unfolded along Sheridan Avenue around 11:30 a.m., as dozens of people were going in and out of the area courts, restaurants and law offices.
Nathaliz Martínez, a legal secretary at the Goodfriend Document Center across from the family court entrance, said she heard the gunshots from the second-floor office and tried to convince herself it was just a car backfiring.
“It wasn’t even afternoon yet,” she said incredulously. “Are you serious?”
A man who did not want to be identified because he was on parole said he was coming out of the Social Security office a block away when he saw the officer spin around before hearing three shots. Within minutes, police helicopters were hovering overhead and police officers swarmed the area.
Another man, Jason Rogers, 32, said he was coming out of the Bronx Criminal Court next door on East 161st Street when he heard the shots, ducked and peered around.
“I was trying to look for the shooter,” Rogers said. “It was a rush.”
Jose Sánchez, 30, had just passed through the scanners in the Family Court when he heard a female officer yelling, “Sir, this is not an exit!” Moments later, he heard gunshots.
“It was loud enough that everybody scattered,” he said. “There were kids outside and the officers brought them inside.”
Dozens of police and court officers cordoned off streets near the scene. High-ranking police officials — the first deputy commissioner, the deputy commissioner for counterterrorism and the chief of patrol — huddled with investigators surrounding the stolen sedan. A Nike bag sat on the ground nearby and nine evidence markers surrounded the car.
Officials said the officer and her partner were wearing body cameras, but they were not turned on before the shooting unfolded. Still, investigators recovered video of the incident from nearby buildings, police said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.