Cops: Driver shot after stealing patrol car

A wrong-way driver, later shot while fleeing police in a stolen police car, was admitted Monday to North Shore University Medical Center under guard, facing multiple charges including two counts of attempted murder, robbery, assault and driving while intoxicated, police said.

Brandon Pasker, 21, of 421 Fulton Ave., Hempstead, was first seen by a Nassau police officer at about 1 a.m., driving north in the southbound lanes of Routes 106 and 107 in Hicksville, police said.

Det. Lt. Kevin Smith said Pasker struck a 2001 Acura near Broadway and Jericho Turnpike after he apparently spotted the squad car behind him and corrected himself back onto the northbound lane. Two people in the Acura were later treated for minor injuries, police said.

Pasker, whom Smith described as a muscular man over 6 feet tall, stopped shortly after the accident, but when he got out of his car, he made "a beeline toward the officer."

Fighting with that officer and another officer who arrived, Pasker was able to break free of them, Smith said. He was able to get into one of the police cars and drive off north on Route 106, police said.

Other Nassau officers and an officer from the Muttontown Police Department responded and chased Pasker to Roosevelt Memorial Park on Bay Avenue in Oyster Bay, where they were able to box him in, Smith said.

As officers approached the stolen police car, Pasker put the car in drive and tried to run down the officers, Smith said.

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Officers fired an undetermined number of shots at him, police said.

Pasker suffered gunshot wounds to his right wrist and left triceps before he was taken into custody, police said.

Three police officers were treated at hospitals and released.

Earlier Sunday night, Smith said, Pasker was involved in an altercation with security officers at the Broadway Mall in Hicksville.

Pasker followed a security guard's vehicle at the mall's parking lot with his high beams on and slammed into the rear of the guard's car four times, police said.

Smith said police are still investigating details of the case.

Pasker was a transfer student at Hofstra University whose admission has been revoked pending the outcome of the charges against him, a Hofstra spokeswoman said. Police said Pasker's car, a 2010 Chevy Equinox, had Pennsylvania plates.

With Bill Mason