Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration opened fire on a man in New Jersey after he tried to run them down with his car during a traffic stop that went wrong, according to officials.
The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday near the corner of Whiteman Street and Lemoine Avenue in Fort Lee when agents were attempting to question the man in the car as part of an investigation, the DEA said. That's when the driver attempted using the car to strike them, according to officials.
The agents fired into the car, with at least one of the shots hitting the driver. The black sedan then smashed into a utility pole, and the driver was taken to the hospital. His condition was not immediately made clear, nor was his identity.
Cellphone video showed guns pointed at men lying on the ground, both of whom were in handcuffs as federal officers got the scene under control.
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Investigators haven’t said why the suspect was stopped to begin with. DEA Special Agent Timothy McMahon said that two agents were involved in the shooting, and that the Bergen County Prosecutors Office would be handling the investigation.
The sudden gunshots rattled the surrounding neighborhood.
"I look over my shoulder on the left, I hear five pops...and I just see that Toyota just crashed into the pole. A bunch of police, a couple minutes later even more police, they block the roads," said local jewelry store owner Tom Ko. "No one really knew what to do so we kind of just ducked at the sound of the pop and we saw that police had everything under control eventually."
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A crossing guard told NBC New York that he would have been standing at his post at the intersection where the shooting occurred, but today he was running late.
"That is my post there, so I was lucky," the crossing guard said. "It’s crazy, I got goosebumps when I saw everything."
