The NYPD has told officers to open fire on vehicles to prevent a “mass ramming attack” like the terror strike last year in Nice, France, where a truck plowed through a crowd and killed 86 people, The Post has learned.
“A ‘vehicle ramming attack’ is the type of extraordinary event that this clause was intended to address. The objectively reasonable use of deadly physical force to terminate a mass casualty terrorist event would be legally justified and within department guidelines,” a directive sent out Monday says.
The directive clarified a patrol guide regulation that says officers cannot “discharge their firearms at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly physical force is being used against the member of service or another person.”
It then notes that “violations of the force provisions” will be reviewed by a case-by-case basis and that review may find under “exception circumstances the action was justified.”
The message says vehicle attacks on crowds have “emerged as a frequent and alarming worldwide trend. … inflicting maximum carnage. These events have generated significant media attention.”
It goes on to list such attacks in France, Germany, the Ohio State University campus and Israel.
It lists a number of attacks where a vehicle rammed into a crowd – including Berlin, where 12 were killed at a Christmas market; Israel, where four were killed when a truck slammed into a group of soldier in January; and Nice, France, where a cargo truck crashed into a Bastille Day celebration.
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