Amsterdam

Man Tackled By Police After Trying to Escape Arrest on Upper West Side

What to Know

  • Police tackled a man who escaped out the back seat of an NYPD cruiser after a shooting and a fight on the west side of Manhattan
  • The entire ordeal started with a man getting shot at the Amsterdam Houses, then a fight breaking out
  • The scuffle allowed one man who was in the back of a police cruiser to escape, wriggling out an open window before being tackled by police

Police tackled a man who escaped out the back seat of an NYPD cruiser after a shooting and a fight on the west side of Manhattan Monday evening, witness video shows.

The entire ordeal started with police responding to a 27-year-old man getting shot twice at the Amsterdam Houses on the corner of West 63rd Street and West End Avenue sometime after 4 p.m., authorities said. Several people were taken into custody, but it isn’t clear if any were suspected shooters.

Shortly after, there was a scuffle nearby — which allowed one man who was in the back of a police cruiser to escape, wriggling out an open window.

Cellphone video shows the man briefly escape police custody, only to be brought down by more than six officers, who pinned him to the ground. It wasn’t clear if he was involved in the earlier shooting.

A witness at the scene, who only wanted to be identified as Dutch, said the man was fighting the cops.

“They might say he was just sitting there doing nothing, but no he was fighting. He was doing pretty good,” said Dutch.

One block further north, on West 64th Street, police were seen searching high and low for evidence, shining flashlights underneath cars and inspecting dumpsters. It was not clear if they found anything, and an investigation is ongoing.

The 27-year-old man who was shot earlier was in stable condition.

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