Another NYPD officer has been shot within a violent 12-hour span, this time in a Bronx police precinct this morning – allegedly by the same suspect who fired on two cops last night in a street ambush, CBS NY reports.
The alleged gunman is now in custody. In a press conference this morning, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said he had served time in prison for attempted murder and was paroled in 2017.
Today’s shooting happened at the New York City Police Department’s 41st Precinct located at 1035 Longwood Ave. in the Longwood section of the Bronx. Police say the shooter is believed to be the same person sought from yesterday’s shooting in which one NYPD officer was shot after he and his partner were ambushed sitting in their marked police van in the Bronx.
Shea said the gunman entered the precinct, pulled a gun and shot at two officers and a civilian before running around a desk area and taking cover.
“It is only but the grace of God and the heroic actions of those inside the building that took him into custody that we are not talking about police officers murdered inside a New York City police precinct,” said Shea.
A male lieutenant was hit the left arm and returned fire on the gunman, not hitting him. The suspect laid down on the precinct house floor after running out of bullets in his pistol.
At a press conference late last night, Shea called the shooting “an assassination attempt at two New York City police officers” – language again echoed by the mayor on Sunday morning.
“This was an attempt to assassinate police officers,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday. “We need to use that word, because it was a premeditated effort to kill – and not just to kill other human beings, but to kill those who wear a uniform that represents all of us.
“We have to understand this as a city, as a nation, our entire society has to understand: An attack on a police officer is an attack on all of us, it’s an attack on a democratic society, a decent society,” he said. “It’s intolerable, and we will not accept it, we will fight back with everything we have, because we have to protect not only New Yorkers but everything that we believe in this city, a place where everyone can live in peace and decency and mutual respect.” Read more at CBS NY.
{Matzav.com}
