Police Fatally Shot Bat-Wielding Suspect Involved In Road Rage Incident

A road rage incident Monday morning in Great Neck, Long Island, ended with a bat-wielding suspect being fatally shot by police after he injured two people.

The incident, involving three drivers, took place on Bayview Avenue and East Shore Road at around 10:30 a.m. EDT, which reportedly led to one of the drivers being hit on the head with a baseball bat by another driver. A responding officer first used a taser on the bat-wielding suspect, but he did not stop his attack even after that.

The incident began at a stop sign, when the driver of a Volkswagen was at the sign and reportedly refused to move forward. The drivers of two vans behind him honked continuously for him to move, after which the suspect emerged from the Volkswagen wielding a baseball bat and started smashing the windshields of the vans behind him.

The driver of one the vans behind the suspect’s vehicle got out to confront him and as a result got hit in the head with the bat.

A rookie Nassau County police officer on routine patrol accidentally stumbled upon the scene and as he confronted the suspect, he was also joined by a Good Samaritan, who offered assistance.

“That officer showed great restraint and finally pulled out his Taser. He tazed the individual. It phased him a little bit but it did not stop him. He then proceeded toward the officer again – all along the officer was giving instructions to put the bat down,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said. “A civilian got involved at that point to help the officer, and that civilian was struck in the head with the bat… He turned on our officer, his last instruction was to put the bat down, and the officer had no other option but to fire.”

The officer shot the suspect after the Good Samaritan was also hit by his bat. The suspect was said to have been shot in the chest and later declared dead at North Shore University Hospital.

“It was a lot of ambulances and cars, someone clearly injured to his head, another man looked like he passed out, they were trying to save him,” Anna Rooney, one of the witnesses at the scene, said.

The two other victims — the drivers of the vans, who were beaten in the head with the bat, were also hospitalized. They suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Sources told CBS2 the suspect was identified as Michael Ward, who was wanted for a crime spree in New York City that reportedly started Saturday.

The other victims and the Good Samaritan have not been identified by the authorities yet.

Police said they believe Ward was involved in several other crimes since Saturday, when a 77-year-old man was punched and robbed of $20 in the Bronx that night.

Three other incidents took place Monday for which, the police believe Ward was responsible. The first incident had a pedestrian being struck and killed by a vehicle in a hit-and-run at Metropolitan Avenue and then in Manhattan just 10 minutes later, a woman delivering newspapers had her Honda Odyssey stolen at Madison and Montgomery Streets. A while later, a man was punched in the face and had his 2018 Acura stolen.