Police say shortly after 10 p.m., an off-duty rookie officer who was on his way to work stopped at a traffic light in his personal car. Two suspects walked up to the officer and tapped on the driver’s side window with a gun. That’s when the cop got out of the car and one of the suspects started firing at the officer, striking him in the shoulder CBS2 reported.
“The officer returned fire but did not strike anyone and the two males fled the scene on foot. Uniformed officers from the 100th Precinct heard the sound of gunfire and rushed to the scene,” NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said.
A few minutes later, a different set of officers spotted the suspects three blocks away. They got out of their unmarked car and were shot at by the suspects. The NYPD said those officers used restraint and did not shoot back. Instead, they chased by foot and captured the two men.
“When these two individuals shot at a passenger driving a car, they didn’t shoot at a police officer, they shot at a civilian. And then to find out that they shot at police officers, it sent a message. They had no regard of who they were trying to kill,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “So the conversation we have been having over and over again — the over-proliferation of guns, ready to use them on individuals in blue uniforms or blue jeans. They don’t care. They don’t care. And to see something like this happen repeatedly in our city is unacceptable.”
