Terrifying footage shows the moment when brutal thieves rammed an SUV into the sidewalk and stole $20,000 in cash from the driver at gunpoint on Manhattan’s Upper East Side – a bizarre robbery that left police searching for the still-exposed suspects.
The dramatic scene shocked bystanders on Second Avenue between 91 and 92 streets Saturday around 4:40 p.m., when two cars pulled up on the wrong side of the road against traffic in an apparent high-speed chase.
The video clip captured by a bystander shows the car driven by the victim, a Silver Toyota Rav-4, zooming down the avenue at high speeds before being overtaken by black Mercedes-Benz driven by the attackers , which collides with the car. SUV.
The suspects continue to accelerate, but continue to accelerate and ram the Toyota, causing it to spin out of the corner as the driver continues to try to get away.
At that point, the Mercedes driver depresses the accelerator again and pushes the other car up the pavement, where another chase ensued, causing bystanders who arrived at the scene to flee and jump to the side.
Both vehicles then drive off the sidewalk into an adjacent bus lane, where the Mercedes again gives chase and rams the Toyota a second time, turning it 180 degrees again – this time forcing it to a stop, the video shows.
A man armed with a gun then exits the passenger side of the Mercedes, approaches the other vehicle and watches him smash into the glass with the weapon and threaten the driver – who police say knew the attackers.
That’s when the police say the thief snatched a pile of cash to the beat of… $20,000 before he jumps back into the Mercedes and drives off. No injuries were reported as a result of the incident – and the suspects are still at large on Sunday morning.
The dramatic scene shocked bystanders on Second Avenue between 91 and 92 streets Saturday around 4:40 p.m., when two cars collided with traffic on the wrong side of the road, in an apparent high-speed chase.
The clip shows the car driven by the victim, a Silver Toyota Rav-4, whizzing down the street at high speeds before being overtaken by a black Mercedes driven by the attackers
The suspects still accelerate, continue to accelerate and ram the Toyota, which was driven by a 55-year-old man who may have known the suspects still present.
The Benz then crashes into the SUV, causing it to spin away as the driver continues to try to escape
At that moment, the Mercedes driver hits the gas again and pushes the car up the sidewalk
The robbery took place in broad daylight on Manhattan’s largely residential Upper East Side — and was the most recent in a string of incidents amid the city’s current crime wave.
Pictured is one of the suspects still at large, armed with the gun he would eventually wave at the victim
‘He’s got a gun! He’s got a gun!’ a spectator can be heard screaming in the clip, which has been widely shared on social media since the brutal attack in broad daylight.
NYPD officials added that the armed robbers dumped the broken-down Mercedes a few blocks from the crime scene, which was quickly recovered by officers about five blocks away, on East 86 Street near Third Avenue.
Photos show damage to the hood of the luxury vehicle from the repeated ramming.
Once on the sidewalk, another brief chase ensued, causing bystanders who flocked to the scene to watch the action to flee and jump to the side
Both vehicles then drive off the sidewalk into an adjacent bus lane, where the Mercedes again gives chase and rams the Toyota a second time.
The second impact saw the 180 degrees again – this time forced to a stop, show the video
A bystander, 48-year-old January Cotrel, told the Daily News Saturday night that the second impact of the Mercedes caused the tire of the much larger Toyota to pop, leaving the victim a duck in the robbers’ bite.
Cotrel told the paper: The Toyota “couldn’t go anywhere.”
When he was apprehended for the second time, another witness said the Toyota driver, who police did not identify, got out of his car with his hands up and surrendered to the armed assailant.
The man who got out of the front passenger side of the Mercedes turned out to be black and was wearing a mask that covered his chin and a durag.
A bystander said the second impact of the Mercedes caused the tire of the much larger Toyota to pop, leaving the victim a duck in the robbers’ bite.
‘He’s got a gun! He’s got a gun!’ a bystander can be heard in the clip as the attacker exits the vehicle and confronts the victim in the silver Toyota
The masked man bangs the weapon on the glass and threatens the driver – who police say knew the attackers
The man who got out of the passenger side of the Mercedes was wearing a mask that covered his chin, as well as a gray hoodie and durag.
Police say the thief stole a stack of cash worth $20,000 before jumping back into the Mercedes and driving away. They would dump the battered vehicle a few blocks away
‘Then a man got out’ [of the Mercedes]said 22-year-old deli worker Nour, who witnessed the incident while working at Yorkville Deli and Market across the street.
The gunman then snatched a bag from the car, witnesses told The News — a bag the victim later said contained $20,000 in cash.
Nour said the victim – who police did not identify but likely knew of his attackers – was stunned by the incident.
‘The man was in shock – he can’t say anything. He just stood in place,” Nour said of the victim, who later told him there was money in the bag. “When he first saw the gun… he got out and raised his hands.”
Spectators crowd the victim’s car in the wake of the brutal robbery. When they were stopped for the second time, witnesses said the driver got out of his car with his hands up and surrendered to the armed suspect.