Two NYPD officers who were trying to make an arrest during a Brooklyn drag racing street takeover were injured after a BMW driver slammed into their cruiser on Saturday morning.
The cops arrived at the scene in a marked cruiser around 3:04 a.m. after receiving multiple calls of drivers zipping around wildly doing tire-screeching donuts on the asphalt near the corner of Knapp St. and Ave. W in Sheepshead Bay, cops said.
The officers tried to shut down the high-octane gathering and were in the process of arresting somebody, when a dark-colored BMW without license plates slammed into the rear passenger side of their car.
Someone then hopped out of the BMW and slashed the police car’s tires, then jumped up and down on its hood, damaging the vehicle’s windshield before getting back into the BMW and fleeing the scene.
In the chaos, the individual the officers had been trying to arrest wound up getting away.
EMS transported the two officers to local area hospitals where they were treated for minor injuries.
No arrests were made as cops are actively looking for the suspects.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Tire marks are seen on McDonald Ave. and Albemarle Rd. in Brooklyn on Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Meanwhile, the day before, Councilman Phil Wong, who represents District 30 in Queens, introduced a bill that would formally establish a citywide NYPD Street Takeover Unit that would be deployed specifically to handle street takeovers across all five boroughs.
The out-of-control car meetups, also known as “sideshows,” are heavily fueled by social media. The more chaotic and dangerous the events are, the better, as far as the clout-chasing posters are concerned. Spectators have been injured when the drivers doing donuts and spinouts get too close.
Wong’s bill, Intro 984, would also require the NYPD to report to the mayor and City Council within 30 days of each deployment. The reports would compile the number of tickets issued, vehicles towed and arrests made, plus include a detailed summary of the tactics used. The bill would also require rules governing use of tire-deflation devices to immobilize street takeover cars without causing tire blowouts.
The bill comes in response to incidents like one in April where one youth was arrested for taking part in a wild drag racing takeover of a Queens neighborhood. Two cars involved in the “Fast & Furious”-style takeover were found and seized by police in that incident, officials said.
The two high-performance Infiniti cars — one blue, one purple — were captured on video roaring around at the street meetup, which saw roughly 100 cars drag racing, doing donuts and other stunts around a ring of fire started with accelerant at the intersection, which is bordered by gas stations.
When cops arrived to break up the scene of the Queens street takeover around 1:40 a.m., most of the Vin Diesel wannabes scattered. But not three people who jumped on the hood of a police car, breaking its windshield, before piling into a black Nissan without license plates and zooming off northbound on 69th St.
“What happened at 69th Street and Eliot Avenue was a wake-up call,” Wong said in announcing the bill. “A mob should never be able to seize a neighborhood intersection, light the street on fire in between two gas stations, endanger residents, and damage a police vehicle while our local precincts are stretched thin.”
Asil Assaidi, 22, was identified as the driver of the blue Infiniti recorded doing donuts and burning rubber in the Middle Village “Mad Max” mayhem. Smiling and laughing cockily as he was led out of an NYPD precinct in cuffs, Assaidi was charged with reckless endangerment.
“Too often there are no consequences in the criminal justice system for this type of outrageous behavior,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on X at the time. “Clearly, it’s time for that to change. My hope and expectation is that Asil Assaidi will be held fully accountable for his actions.”