Police shoot alleged car thief in Brooklyn

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A police chase ended with officers shooting the suspect after they say he fired upon them in Brooklyn.

Police say 29 year old Dahanj Sam was driving a stolen SUV with North Carolina plates when police attempted to pull him over. He allegedly ditched the stolen Saturn around midnight in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, and then tried to flee on foot.

As he was climbing a chain link fence near a public housing complex, he tripped. Fearing the slip would allow two pursuing officers to catch up, he fired twice at them from about four feet away, police said.

The two officers were not hit and returned fire. A 48-year-old detective sergeant fired seven times. A 38-year-old officer fired twice.

Authorities said Sam sustained nine entry or exit wounds. He is in critical but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital

Neither officer was injured. Both have been involved in previous shootings, officials said. The detective sergeant was in a 1992 shootout in Queens, where no one was hit. The officer shot a dog that attacked him in Brooklyn.

Sam has seven prior arrests, including assault in 2011 and criminal sale of a controlled substance in July. He was charged with a stabbing in Pennsylvania in 2001 and served seven years in prison.

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