Prosecutors seek tougher sentence for driver who rammed Brooklyn Park police cars

Charges have been filed against a shooting suspect who was caught on dashcam slamming into police vehicles during a pursuit in Brooklyn Park.

It happened Thursday, after local police responded to a report of multiple shots fired on the 6600 block of 83rd Court North. After making contact with a man who had been shot in the leg, officers saw a a white BMW leaving the garage of the suspect, 45-year-old Terry Neal Johnson.

"In the driver's haste to flee the scene, the car was driven through the garage door," the charges say. What happened next was a brief but tense chase in which the suspect's vehicle was filmed colliding with the squad cars during an attempted escape.

You can watch the dashcam video right here:

The suspect was ultimately stopped and arrested after officers executed a PIT maneuver to disable his vehicle, prosecutors say. 

According to the charges, the shooting victim lived next-door to Johnson, and reported to officers that he had heard "several gunshots" before a bullet came through the wall separating their homes and struck him in the leg. 

All told, FOX 9 reports, bullets struck "at least five different condos and homes" in the neighborhood, while two police officers suffered concussions due to the collision with Johnson's BMW. 

The station says the man who was shot in the leg, an unidentified 29-year-old, was in intensive care on Friday but is expected to survive. 

Authorities searched Johnson's residence and found the following, per the charges:

Officers observed several bullet holes throughout the home. Officers also observed a 9 mm handgun on the kitchen stove, numerous 9mm spent casings and live rounds scattered on the floor, and several pieces of mail addressed to Defendant.

Johnson was charged Friday with felony firearm possession and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors note that Johnson has a prior conviction for assault in the third degree. 

The charges also say that prosecutors will be seeking "an upward durational departure" from sentencing guidelines for Johnson, meaning he could face a harsher sentence than what the law calls for — as "this case is more serious than other similarly situated offenses of possession of a pistol by an ineligible person."

But in an email to Bring Me The News, Brooklyn Park Deputy Police Chief said "it is disappointing that fleeing and the assault on the police was not charged by the county attorney."

Johnson is currently in custody at the Hennepin County Jail.