When Officer Diara Cruz and Officer Patrick Espeut stumbled upon two men drinking beer in the stairwell of a housing complex in the Bronx, they asked to see some identification.
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The officers are assigned to Police Service Area 7 and have been on the force for two years, police said. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who was in San Antonio for a policing gathering, took to Twitter to offer his best to the two officers. “Police officers Espeut and Cruz were shot while performing a vertical patrol that they have both done countless times before without incident”, Lynch said in a statement.
The person who was with Chavis was taken into custody, and several others were taken in for questioning.
Police also confirmed the identity of the gunman they say later killed himself as 23-year-old Malik Chavis.
Authorities say two police officers have been shot and wounded by a gunman they encountered in the stairwell of a public housing project they were patrolling, and the gunman has killed himself.
Mayor Bill de Blasio visited the wounded officers at the hospital and praised their police work: “Our fearless officers were doing their jobs in a public housing patrol keeping residents safe”, he told reporters.
“I was waiting for the elevator when I heard three shots”, said Katherine Martinez, 28.
The suspect turned at some point and fired three rounds at the officers, striking one in the left temple while hitting another in the stomach below her bullet proof vest.
The Democratic mayor raced to the hospital after being told about the shooting when he finished his speech.
Two New York Police Department officers have been shot in a public housing complex.
The officers were being treated at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center. The two officers, one… The news outlet reports that Chavis had 17 prior arrests. “This goes to show the dangers police officers face each and every day”.
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The housing development is located in the 40th Precinct, where Officer Sherrod Stuart was shot in the ankle by friendly fire during a shootout on January 9. As he entered a tiresome stairwell from the eighth floor, he shot his firearm and executed 28-year-old Akai Gurley.
