NEW YORK, November 15, 2026 — NYPD officers shot and killed a van driver on the eastbound Belt Parkway Saturday evening after he rammed police and civilian vehicles while trapped in traffic. The confrontation followed a 911 call reporting a possible abduction in Coney Island that investigators later determined stemmed from a domestic dispute.
The 911 Call and Initial Pursuit
Two callers dialed 911 at approximately 7:19 p.m. to report a possible abduction at West 22nd Street and Surf Avenue. A male caller said he saw a girl kicking and screaming inside a white van. A female caller reported hearing a woman repeatedly yell, “Let me go.” While still on the line with dispatchers, the callers flagged down a marked NYPD patrol car to alert officers to the van.
As officers approached the vehicle, the driver mounted the sidewalk and fled at high speed. Officers broadcast the van’s description and license plate over department radios, initiating a pursuit that moved onto the Belt Parkway.
Confrontation on the Parkway
The driver soon encountered heavy eastbound traffic, where uniformed officers caught up to the van. Assistant Chief Charles Minch, commanding officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, said at a news conference that officers gave multiple verbal commands for the driver to exit. They then broke the front passenger-side window.
At that point, the driver began driving forward and backward, repeatedly ramming both police cruisers and occupied civilian vehicles. Officers deployed pepper spray and a Taser, but neither stopped the driver. As he continued ramming nearby cars, officers opened fire.
Aftermath and Investigation
Police pulled the driver from the van and performed CPR until EMS arrived. He was transported to Lutheran Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Several officers were taken to area hospitals for evaluation.
The woman whose screams prompted the 911 call had exited the van before officers first arrived on the scene in Coney Island. She was located within hours, uninjured, and confirmed to detectives that she had been screaming during a domestic dispute.
Police said the driver, a man in his 30s whose name is being withheld pending family notification, was wanted for unlawful imprisonment from last month and a domestic assault earlier this month involving the same woman. The shooting was captured on body-worn camera and remains under investigation by the NYPD Force Investigation Division.
Sources
- Police Fatally Shoot Man in Brooklyn After Report of Possible Abduction
- Driver fatally shot by NYPD on Belt Parkway after ramming police and civilian cars in Brooklyn: Police
- Man fatally shot by NYPD after report of possible abduction on Belt Parkway
- NYPD shoots Brooklyn kidnapping suspect dead after woman heard 'screaming' in white van – AOL
- Kidnapping suspect shot dead by NYPD after woman heard 'screaming' in van
Photo: Dougtone (CC BY-SA 2.0)
