A cop shot and critically wounded a man during a traffic stop on Staten Island this afternoon, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
An officer and two detectives approached the car during the stop in Castleton Corners, and recognized the driver as a gang member, the sources said. They told him to put his hands on the wheel, but instead he reached for something.
That’s when the officer fired three times — hitting the driver twice, the sources said.
The wounded man peeled off and made it five blocks before he crashed into a pole.
He then tried to take off on foot, but cops caught up to him.
He was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, where he was not expected to survive.
Cops had blocked off the area.
“There was a car skidding, and then I heard 3 gun shots,” said Laura Ann Koch, 37, a cashier at a local pharmacy who lives on the other side of the highway from the shooting. “I was scared. It [the shooting] sounded like it was right here.”
It appeared to be the eighth police-involved shooting this year.
“When we walked down the block, the car had flipped over and split the telephone pole in half,” said Bill Graham, 58.
— Additional reporting by Kaylee Osowski