With a headline like "Nassau County Police officer strikes armed woman with vehicle" I expected the worst! I turns out to have been a manoever to disarm a woman waving a gun around in public. Video shows the officer driving quickly at her after she puts the gun to her own head. She is not seriously harmed, and soon arrested.
"Other option on the table is to take up the gun and shoot her. They didn't do that. They chose an alternative option that they thought quickly to react and probably save people's lives, including their own," [Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick] Ryder said.
Former NYPD detective Felipe Rodriguez says the officer's life was in danger while using this unorthodox approach.
"The windshields in vehicles are not bulletproof, and as he ended up coming closer to her, you actually became a bigger target. So he was very lucky she didn't decide to aim at the vehicle and discharge the firearm," he said.
The woman was "treated for minor injuries" at a local hospital and faces various charges related to the firearm, according to a press release from Nassau County P.D.
It's interesting how mainstream news reports (such as CBS's below) cut the video before the impact or (CW) play it in very slow motion, even though she was not injured. That, and the tone of the reports, leave me somewhat more suspicious about the whole thing than I expected to be.
Update: God bless Britain's nasty tabloids. The Daily Mail has the unedited (if crudely recaptured) footage.
