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The incident happened in Yonkers on Thursday, May 29, when police spotted a stolen Toyota at a traffic light believed to be connected to a grand larceny from a local store just a day earlier. Officers had already anticipated that the driver, later identified as Dabir Imam, would try to flee, Yonkers Police announced on Wednesday, June 4.
According to Yonkers Police, a lieutenant snuck up on the vehicle and deployed stop stick tire deflation devices, a new addition to the department’s chase mitigation strategy.
As soon as Imam spotted the lieutenant, he tried to flee—but one of his vehicle’s rear tires had already been punctured, police said.
The chase was short-lived. Imam soon encountered a second deployment of stop sticks, which deflated two more tires and left the vehicle nearly inoperable.
Imam and his passenger, Eric Zapata, then abandoned the car and fled on foot into a nearby apartment building. They were quickly located on the roof and taken into custody, according to authorities.
Body camera footage of the dramatic incident was later posted online by the department on Wednesday, showing the stop-stick deployments and the arrests.
Dabir Imam now faces several charges, including criminal possession of stolen property, criminal possession of a forged instrument, reckless endangerment, and unlawfully fleeing a police officer.
Meanwhile, Zapata was arrested on larceny charges related to a previous offense in Yonkers, police said.
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