An SUV full of suspected looters plowed into a New York Police Department (NYPD) officer trying to stop them in Manhattan early Monday.
A video showed several men running along W. 8th Street shortly after 3:20 a.m., carrying as much as they could in their arms. Three of them hopped into a getaway SUV, while a police van pursued them.
According to the video, the van cut off the SUV, and a police officer hopped out of the passenger seat.
As the officer approached the SUV, the driver rammed the vehicle straight into the officer.
Police said the officers were responding to a burglary at a cell phone store on Fifth Avenue and 8th Street, where a group of men got out of their vehicles, smashed the front windows, and allegedly looted the store.
The suspects had jumped back into one of the vehicles waiting for them and were about to flee the scene when the police van cut them off.
The officer was struck by the getaway vehicle as he jumped out of the side door of the van.
The police officer was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he is listed in stable condition, the New York Daily News reported.
The SUV that struck the officer and fled was a Ford Explorer with temporary Wisconsin license plates, police said. Police said the other getaway car was a Honda Accord with New Jersey license plates.
Police are actively investigating the incident, and the suspects are at large.
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