Police: Suspect rams car into Nassau cop in Queens

A Nassau County special operations police officer was injured in Queens Sunday afternoon when a man suspected in a Hicksville armed robbery "violently resisted arrest" and tried to run over the officer, police said.

The 4:30 p.m. incident in Jamaica Estates involved four plainclothes special operations officers in two vehicles, said Insp. Kenneth Lack, a Nassau police spokesman. The officers were looking for a robbery suspect, saw him get into a vehicle, blocked him in, approached on foot and identified themselves, he said. He added that the officers were displaying their police shields.

But the suspect, identified as Muhammad Ali, 21, of Hicksville, "violently resisted arrest," Lack said. Another officer shot Ali in the chest as he tried to flee. Ali was wanted on a warrant charging first-degree robbery in a Friday armed robbery in Hicksville, in which the suspect displayed a knife and gun, Lack said.

The suspect, "started his vehicle and tried to ram his way out," Lack said. He was parked on the left side of the street and tried to turn left, "crushing the officer between his vehicle and another."

When he turned toward another officer, that officer fired two rounds, one of which went through the windshield and hit the suspect in chest, causing nonlife-threatening injuries.

Lack declined to identify the injured 46-year-old officer, but said he is 20-year veteran of the force and has been with special operations for 10 years.

The officer was in Queens at the request of the Nassau Second Squad detectives unit.

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The officer was taken to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. He suffered injuries to both legs below the knees, but was alert and conscious, Lack said.

About a dozen Nassau uniformed and nonuniformed officers were huddled inside the hospital emergency room area.

An NYPD spokeswoman declined to comment and said Nassau police were handling the investigation.

Ali was taken to Jamaica Hospital with unknown injuries.

Lack said Ali has a police record that is 19 pages long. He said Ali had been arrested nine times since Feb. 7, 2011, six on felony counts, including one violent felony, and three misdemeanors. It could not be determined Sunday night how many of those arrests resulted in convictions. Lack said the Queens district attorney's office would determine what charges would result from Sunday's incident.

Police at the scene, near 178-10 Wexford Terrace, had no comment.

Tanvir Shah was walking up Wexford Terrace about 4:30 p.m., when he said he saw what appeared to be an injured man on the ground. He said he heard a woman say, "They shot him. Oh my God, they shot my brother . . . Self-defense, self-defense!"

Shah said he didn't hear any shots. He said he was going to the store to get cigarettes and had his headphones on. A few minutes later, he said, he saw "a bunch of cops."

Neighbor Sterling Jean Louis said he was shocked by the shooting and police activity. "I've never seen anything like this in this neighborhood," he said of his upscale community. "It's quiet; it's Jamaica Estates."

Another resident, Sohail Humayun, had just returned home when he saw the police. He also said he had not seen anything like the crime scene in the neighborhood.

With Lisa Fraser