Cruz was hit in the stomach and will remain in the hospital, authorities said.
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The Democratic mayor raced to the hospital after being told about the shooting when he finished his speech.
NEW YORK (CNN) – A 23-year-old man who shot and wounded two police officers in a New York housing project said, “I shot that **** cop”.
Several of those who were in the apartment as well as the other man in the stairwell were taken for questioning, authorities said.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton tweeted Thursday night, “Proud of my officers, hopeful for their speedy recovery, grateful for the many expressions of concern and support on their behalf”.
One officer was grazed in the head and the second was shot in the leg. Police are searching for at least one suspect, the station said. When officers went inside, they found that person dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Tucker said.
Asked on Thursday night why these individuals were being questioned since the shooter was dead, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said that the other individuals had “allegedly done nothing” and “they’re not being held for anything [other] than purely giving information”.
According to police, the officers were on a vertical patrol when Officer Cruz…
“Our fearless officers were doing their jobs tonight in our public housing on patrol keeping residents safe”, de Blasio said. Police would not provide the names of the officers or the person who was in custody. He added: “Both officers have been alert and communicating”.
Both officers were taken to Lincoln Hospital. A spokeswoman for Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio (dih BLAH’-zee-oh) says one of the officers was shot in the face and the other was shot in an arm.
Both Espeut and Cruz are two-year veterans, and Espeut also serves in the New York Air National Guard as a staff sergeant. “This shows the difficulty and danger of vertical patrols in our buildings”, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said.
Apparently, fellow officers have testified in similar housing complex shootings that the beat is often “dangerous”.
During testimony in the ongoing Brooklyn manslaughter trial of rookie Officer Peter Liang – accused in the fatal 2014 shooting of a man in a darkened stairwell of the Louis H. Pink houses – Det. Liang has pleaded not guilty, and his defense has suggested he had his gun drawn because of the risky nature of the assignment. Two police officers were shot while on patrol in a public housing project on Thursday night…
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Police say the man who shot them later killed himself.
