An NYPD Emergency Services Unit officer was shot and wounded Tuesday morning during a standoff with a man who barricaded himself for hours inside his Lower East Side apartment, officials said.
Authorities said the officer was struck in the upper arm and that his wounds were not life-threatening. After initially being taken to Bellevue Hospital, he was released Tuesday afternoon and is expected to make a full recovery, officials said.
Gunfire first broke out shortly after 5 a.m., when police attempted to conduct a search warrant for illegal guns inside an apartment, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a news briefing at Bellevue.
Tisch said as a team of ESU officers entered the apartment, a man — identified by police as 34-year-old Edwin Rivera — fired five to six rounds at them, NY1 reports.
Rather than return fire, police “tactically repositioned” into the hallway, at which point Rivera barricaded himself in the apartment, with an upright couch blocking the doorway, Tisch said.
Just before 8:20 a.m., officers tried to move the couch blocking the front door, at which point Rivera allegedly fire several rounds at police, striking one officer in the left shoulder.
Police then returned fire, striking him multiple times, Tisch said. Rivera was taken to Bellevue Hospital and is expected to survive, she said.
