Two New York police officers were suspended after chasing a stolen SUV that was found engulfed in flames early Wednesday morning with the driver dead inside, officials said.
The incident in Upper Manhattan is being reviewed by the Police Department’s force investigation unit and the state attorney general’s office, which are both charged with looking into deaths involving the police.
The driver was not identified. Nor did the police release the names of the two officers.
Firefighters received a 911 call at 4:56 a.m. Wednesday about a car on fire on Dyckman Street, James Long, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said.
When they arrived, they found a Honda CRV engulfed in flames and the driver dead inside, Mr. Long said. The police are investigating whether the officers left the scene of the collision without reporting it, a senior law enforcement official said.
The police said the Honda was going south on the Henry Hudson Parkway and exited at Dyckman Street, in the Inwood neighborhood. There, the police said, the car collided with a building, causing it to burst into flames.
At 4:57 a.m., officers responded to a 911 call reporting that the car was on fire. Emergency medical workers pronounced the man dead at the scene, the police said.
The police told residents at a precinct meeting Thursday night that the car crashed after two officers pursued it. The officers came from the 50th Precinct, which covers the northwestern Bronx.
On Friday morning, Dyckman Street was silent, except for some school children and people headed to a nearby park.
Jesse Taveras, who lives in the neighborhood, said he saw charred, twisted scraps of metal when he walked by the crash scene Wednesday afternoon on his way to the park.
“The car was still there — it was burned, fully burned,” he said. Emergency officials were at the scene, towing away the vehicle’s remains.
“It was awful, very awful, thinking about somebody dying in a car, burned,” he said.
The collision occurred about three months after Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch announced that New York City police officers would no longer engage in high-speed chases of drivers who break traffic laws or commit other low-level offenses. The change was made in an effort to stop crashes that have led to serious injuries and deaths in America’s most densely populated major city.
“Our officers deserve clear guidance and smart protocols when determining whether to engage in a vehicle pursuit on our streets,” Commissioner Tisch said at the time. “The N.Y.P.D.’s enforcement efforts must never put the public or the police at undue risk, and pursuits for violations and low-level crimes can be both potentially dangerous and unnecessary.”
The police said the initial pursuit appeared justified under the new policy, which still allows officers to chase drivers they believe have committed the “most serious and violent crimes.” Those include felonies, such as stolen vehicles, or violent misdemeanors.
In a statement, Patrick Hendry, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, said the officers were on patrol, “attempting to address chronic crime conditions in their precinct.”
“This incident is under investigation,” Mr. Hendry said. “And that investigation must be completed without any rush to judgment.”
Anusha Bayya and Maia Coleman contributed reporting.