NYPD makes several arrests at overnight car meet-up in the Bronx. Here's how it went down.
The NYPD made several arrests related to drag racing early Sunday morning in the Bronx.
The busts happened almost one month after another controversial car meet-up in Queens.
The chair of the City Council's Public Safety Committee plans to ask Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch about the troubling trend next month.
Here's what we know
After receiving a 911 call about drag racing, police arrested seven people at around 2:30 a.m. near Hollers and Pinkney avenues in the Eastchester section. Police say four of the suspects were to be charged with criminal possession of a weapon. They range in age from 19 to 24 years old.
Witnesses said approximately a dozen vehicles were on their way to the meet-up, but scattered once they saw police.
"There's a lot of racing and donuts in the middle of the street," one witness said.
CBS News New York spoke to several people who work in the area, but they did not want to go on camera out of fear of retaliation. They did say, however, that the meet-ups are a regular occurrence.
"You put people's life in danger when you do that in the middle of the street," one said.
Video obtained by CBS News New York of the same area last summer shows smoke in the air from burning tires, fireworks, and young adults running as police showed up.
Sunday morning's incident follows the NYPD confiscating vehicles and making arrests last month related to a meet-up in Maspeth, Queens, where fire was involved.
"There has to be consistent enforcement"
Council Public Safety Committee Chair Oswald Feliz said drivers are so brazen he's seen them do it in broad daylight in some parts of the Bronx.
"Individuals were literally doing donuts right in front of a police car and, even worse, they got on top of the police car and did a backflip," Feliz said a few months ago. "In that incident. I'm hearing no arrests. There has to be consistent enforcement. These are individuals who have very little respect for our rules."
Feliz said he'll hold a hearing with Commissioner Tisch next month and plans to ask about the response.
"These are usually street takeovers promoted on social media and we should be more on top of so we don't see the chaos and recklessness," Feliz said.
The NYPD told CBS News New York it "has long had an aggressive plan to deter and stop car meet-ups." The agency posted on X that during the last weekend of April it seized 20 cars in dangerous car meet-ups, and issued more than 100 summonses.
