BROOKLYN: Police Say Driver Fatally Shot After Ramming Vehicles on Belt Parkway

A driver was fatally shot by NYPD officers on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn on Saturday night after he repeatedly rammed police cruisers and occupied civilian vehicles, according to the department's preliminary account.

Police said the incident began around 7:19 p.m. with a 911 report of a possible abduction near West 22nd Street and Surf Avenue in Coney Island. Two callers reported hearing a woman screaming inside a white van and flagged down officers in a marked patrol vehicle.

When officers approached, the driver went onto the sidewalk and sped away, police said. Officers later caught up with the van in eastbound Belt Parkway traffic near Exit 8 in Sheepshead Bay.

According to police, officers ordered the driver out and broke the front passenger-side window. The driver then moved the van forward and backward, ramming police and civilian vehicles. Pepper spray and a Taser did not stop him, police said, before officers opened fire.

Officers removed the driver, called an ambulance and performed CPR. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. His name was being withheld pending notification of relatives, and officers involved were taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Investigators later located the adult woman who had been inside the van. Police said she was unharmed and confirmed that she had left before officers first arrived. Authorities said they believe the screaming arose from a domestic dispute and that the driver was wanted in earlier unlawful-imprisonment and domestic-assault cases involving the same woman.

The NYPD's Force Investigation Division is investigating. Police described the information released so far as preliminary.