Police say the driver got out of his SUV and grabbed a gun, so officers opened fire at the man. NBC New York’s Checkey Beckford reports.
A man was shot and killed by NYPD officers on a section of the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, shutting down the highway and causing miles-long backups in both directions.
Highway officers initially tried to pull the man over for speeding on the Beltway near Bay 8th Street just after 4 p.m., according to police, but the driver of the Jeep rear-ended an officer and continued heading east.
Backup units caught up to the man near the Bay Parkway exit, which is when the 65-year-old man stopped the vehicle near Cropsey Avenue in Gravesend and got out of the car with a weapon, officials said.
NYPD Chief Rodney Harrison said that the man "advanced toward officer with a gun" and ignored their warnings to stop, which is when they opened fire.
Police said that a weapon was recovered at the scene. A witness who was in his car at the time captured the deadly showdown between police and the man on cellphone video. More than a dozen gunshots could be heard ringing out.
The man, whose identity has not yet been released, was taken to the hospital after getting shot in the leg, police said. Law enforcement sources said that the man died at the hospital.
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The shooting caused the entire Belt Parkway to be shut down in the directions just before 5 p.m., according to the city's Office of Emergency Management, which encouraged drivers to find alternate routes. Some westbound lanes were eventually reopened, but there were still heavy delays on that side as well.
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Traffic at one point was said to be backed up on the eastbound side to the Verrazano Bridge, and at least up to Flatbush Avenue in the westbound lanes. Desperate cars were seeing trying to cross the median into oncoming traffic as they sought a way out of the nightmare commute.
