A Troy police officer shot and killed a driver who’d pinned him between two cars after a brief chase early Sunday, police said.
The pinned officer was treated and released from the hospital, but will require further treatment in the future, police said.
Police Sunday did not release either the officer’s name or the suspect’s name. Those could come today, a spokesman said.
The incident began around 3:15 a.m. Sunday on Sixth Avenue, between Hutton and Hoosick Street, police said.
The officer who later got pinned attempted to pull over the driver there. The driver stopped, but tried to strike the officer with his car and drove off.
The officer pursued him north on Sixth, then east on Hoosick Street. The driver attempted to make a U-turn on the westbound side of the Collar City Bridge, but struck a barrier, police said.
The officer blocked the vehicle from the front and got out to take the driver into custody after a second officer blocked the suspect’s car from behind.
But the driver reversed, struck the second police car, then drove forward into the officer, pinning him against his own patrol car, police said.
The pinned officer responded by firing into the car, incapacitating the driver. Additional officers arrived and helped in move the suspect’s car to free the still-pinned officer, police said.
The incident and ensuing investigation had busy Hoosick Street closed into Sunday afternoon, causing detours for Sunday traffic trying to cross the Collar City Bridge. Police reopened the road mid-afternoon.
The incident is the second in less than a year in which a Troy officer killed a suspect who had injured him.
Last Aug. 22, two Troy officers survived gunshot wounds in a shootout with a would-be carjacker. Officers returned fire, killing the suspect.
Seven-year Troy Police Department veteran Joshua Comitale suffered gunshot wounds to his legs in that incident and nine-year veteran Chad Klein suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder.
The suspect in the attempted carjacking, 39-year-old Thaddeus Faison of Albany, opened fire first but was wounded repeatedly by one or both of the officers shooting back, police officials said then.
He continued to struggle with officers even after being shot, and they jolted him with a Taser so they could handcuff him. He died after arriving at a hospital.
Sunday morning’s shooting also marked the second time a Capital Region police officer killed an attacker in a week.
A Rotterdam officer shot and killed a knife-wielding man at a Roberta Road home April 10. Officer Mark Frodyma suffered a cut to his head in the incident and opened fire after partner Sgt. Keith Collins tried in vain to subdue the attacker with a Taser.
The man killed, 30-year-old William Clark, had a history of mental illness, police and an attorney consulted by the family said.
Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122, [email protected] or @ByStevenCook on Twitter.
Categories: -News-, Schenectady County
