Shocking video shows NYPD helplessly trying to stop Bronx van thief from crashing into cars and fleeing: Video

A wild video shows the moment half a dozen Bronx police officers tried in vain to stop a car thief who used a stolen van as a battering ram, repeatedly ramming it into parked cars as he fled.

The chaos unfolded on August 17 at around 6:20 p.m. on Bainbridge Avenue in Fordham Manor when Edwings Irizarry allegedly sped away in a stolen 2009 white Ford van after pushing the vehicle's 33-year-old owner aside, according to police.

The harrowing minute-and-a-half-long clip begins with Irizarry, 45, repeatedly reversing and ramming his van into two parked cars while half a dozen police officers try to stop him from escaping.

As a video shows, one of the officers repeatedly hits the thief's arm with his fist and a baton through the driver's side window while other officers crowd around the vehicle.

“Get out of the car! Get out of the car!” the police shout.

After creating a gap between the destroyed cars, Irizarry steps on the accelerator and speeds away – as a video shows, he narrowly misses a pedestrian.

Only an unmarked New York Police Department vehicle can give chase because the other patrol car is blocked by at least two battered vehicles clogging the road.

“How are you going to move that, you fucking idiot?” one person yelled in Spanish. Another shouted to another to call an ambulance, although it was not clear if anyone had been seriously injured.

According to police, Irizarry was later arrested by police and charged with a number of offenses, including grand theft auto, reckless endangerment and fleeing from police in a stolen vehicle.

Although the thief posed a threat to the public and police safety, officers would likely have ended up behind bars if they had shot the driver or caused an accident by using a Taser, retired NYPD Lieutenant John Macari told the Washington Post.

“They are so closely monitored that they cannot use deadly physical force at that moment, even though they are being subjected to deadly physical force by a driver using that vehicle,” he said.

Macari added that the driver probably had no concerns about injuring police officers or the public because New York's criminal justice reform laws have “eliminated the consequences.”

On Sunday, a brazen 19-year-old driver in Queens hit a police officer in a stolen sedan and then fled. A chase ensued across the officer's rooftops, which ended with his arrest, police said.

The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment on Irizarry's previous arrests.