Dramatic footage has emerged showing US police officers crashing their car into a man brandishing a rifle as he walked down a street.

The footage, which was released by Arizona authorities today, was filmed via police dashboard cameras.

It shows the man, identified by police as 36-year-old Mario Miranda Valencia, apparently firing the rifle into the air before a marked police car speeds into him — launching him in the air — in the town of Marana.

Police said Valencia spent two days in hospital after the February arrest but was not injured.

"It's definitely not standard procedure, but the officer feared that the suspect was going to do some damage," Marana police spokesman Sergeant Chris Warren said.

Police said Valencia was accused of a crime spree that included an armed robbery of a convenience store, a church burglary and arson, and a home invasion and vehicle theft in Tucson.

He is accused of stealing the rifle from a local WalMart.

Valencia was then spotted by police walking toward several businesses and refused orders to drop the weapon and surrender, Sergeant Warren said, adding that the man pointed the rife at an officer at one point.

"Officers are taught if they are in a deadly situation to use whatever means and tools you have available ... that's what happened," Sergeant Warren said.

Valencia was booked into Pima County Jail on multiple felony charges and the officer who was driving the car has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident by the county attorney.

An internal police investigation continues.

Reuters/ABC