Shocking video captured the moment a quick-thinking Long Island cop used his police vehicle to sideswipe a woman who was waving a gun in the street.
Police responded to a report of a woman firing a gun into the air at the intersection of Bellmore and Jerusalem avenues in North Bellmore around 2:20 p.m. Tuesday.
Footage of the incident, posted on Reddit, shows the woman holding the handgun and threateningly pointing it at other cars as she walks across the road.
At one point, she even holds the gun to her own head, the video shows.
Suddenly, tires can be heard screeching and a Nassau police cruiser flies into the frame.
The woman tries to get out of the way, but the officer clips her, knocking her to the ground.
“Drop the gun!” one officer screams as he sprints toward the woman.
She appears to reach for the firearm, which she dropped on the street, in her struggle to get up, before another officer runs up and tackles her.
A third officer moves in, and they place the woman in handcuffs, video shows.
The 33-year-old woman suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital.
She remains in police custody, Nassau police told The Post.
The officer who hit the woman was also hospitalized for trauma.
The officer was following protocol when he knocked the woman down with his vehicle, Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder told reporters at a press conference.
“Protocol on the police department is that deadly physical force spurs deadly physical force,” Ryder said, News12 reported.
“If somebody has threatened deadly physical force against you or another, you have the right to use deadly physical force, and they chose it through their vehicle and they stopped the individual.”
Charges have not yet been filed as the incident remains under investigation, police said.
