A New York police officer lost 25 vacation days for needlessly firing his gun nine times at an empty car while chasing a crime suspect in Brooklyn, Daily News reported.

Darrell Scraper missed every shot, according to the New York Police Department investigators. It was the only such incident in his spotless disciplinary record.

He admitted his wrongdoing in the NYPD trial room. The judge who heard his case stated that the police officer was wrong to fire his weapon since he wasn’t in any personal danger.

The incident occurred on November 3, 2021, when policemen were tipped off about thieves in a vehicle rolling around East New York, Brooklyn.

While chasing the suspect, the vehicles were going about 40 miles per hour when they crashed. Scraper said when he stumbled out of his car he saw that the suspect’s vehicle was “moving towards him with the engine revving.”

Stunned police officer thought the guy would run him over, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the case said. He then opened fire on the vehicle. “There was nothing else (I) could do,” he told department investigators, saying that he fired at the driver’s side of the vehicle “as the car rolled slowly past him.”

He did not realise that the driver had gotten out of the car when he started firing. The driver was the only person in the vehicle, the NYPD trial decision said.

Scraper did try to chase the suspect after realising he got away. The entire ordeal was caught on the police officer’s body-worn camera.

“The guy just got out of a 40-mile-per-hour impact and hit his head, so it was an innocent mistake,” the law enforcement source said of the gunfire. The source described the incident as a “white knuckle chase”.

Scraper admitted at the departmental trial that he should have sought cover instead of opening fire on the moving vehicle. NYPD policy forbids officers from shooting at moving vehicles unless something other than the vehicle is used as a weapon.

NYPD Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Trials Jeff Adler said it was fortunate that no one was hit by the bullet or the vehicle. In his decision, he called for appropriate accountability.

The NYPD’s departmental prosecutor wanted Scraper to be put on dismissal probation and to lose 30 vacation days. But Adler while noting the previous disciplinary record of Scrapper stated that probation was “not warranted.”

He recommended the policeman be docked 25 vacation days instead.