Bed-Stuy Car Chase: 'Bat Out Of Hell' Driver Rams Into Cop Car, Hits Old Lady, Flees Scene

UPDATE Jan. 10, 11:54 p.m.: According to police, the suspect staged a robbery at 380 Grand Ave. in Williamsburg, and he fled the scene in his van. Several cop cars chased him down Myrtle Avenue going east. On Myrtle between Tompkins and Marcy, the driver hit a 71-year-old woman, as well as a cop car, several cars sitting in traffic, and several parked cars, cops and witnesses said.

The woman who was hit was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, possibly a broken leg, the NYPD spokesperson told Patch. A handful drivers that the man hit with his car were taken to the hospital with minor neck and back injuries, police said.

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — An out-of-control driver behind the wheel of a gold minivan with Florida license plates crashed into a cop car and multiple other vehicles, then hit an elderly woman, near Myrtle and Marcy avenues in northern Bed-Stuy around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday — all before fleeing the scene with the NYPD in close pursuit, according to shaken witnesses who spoke to Patch.

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Sirens blared through the neighborhood around 6:30 p.m., while cops hunted down the driver.

"He was driving like a bat out of hell," said a witness named Larry Henry.

Henry said he'd been driving down Tompkins when the minivan almost rammed into his car from behind, then sped past.

An elderly female pedestrian was hit by the driver near Myrtle and Marcy, witnesses said. She was being treated inside an ambulance at the scene Tuesday evening as four to six police helicopters buzzed overhead.

At the height of the chaos, commuters exiting the Myrtle-Willoughby G train station — finding themselves suddenly in the middle of a crime scene — took off running down the sidewalk, in search of safety. To prevent more people from exiting the subway and potentially getting hurt, the NYPD briefly blocked off the subway stairwell, multiple witnesses said.

An NYPD officer on scene said he watched the crazy driver make a reckless U-turn on Myrtle, then drive for at least 15 feet up on the sidewalk.

The NYPD's public information office could not immediately confirm any details Patch gathered at the scene Tuesday evening.

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for updates.

Reporting and photos by Sarah Kaufman/Patch