The early morning shooting in which a bullet-resistant vest saved 29-year-old Police Officer Andrew Yurkiw from certain death occurred as the NYPD finishes up its roll-out of new state-of-the art slug stoppers, officials said, reports the New York Daily News.
The vests come with a ceramic chest plate designed to withstand knife thrusts, as well as rifle shots. They offer wrap-around protection and they’re up to 30% lighter than the older vests, Commissioner Bill Bratton said last year when he announced the safety upgrade.
Mayor de Blasio put $7.3 million in the city budget to pay for the 13,000 new vests, which cost about $700 each. More vests were on the way, the mayor promised.
The new vests were ordered shortly after the deaths of Police Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in December 2014. They were doled out to police officers last May. It’s believed that Yurkiw was wearing one of the new bullet-resistant vests when he was shot in Bedford-Stuyvesant, although that couldn’t be immediately confirmed late Saturday.
