Two housing officers heard a shot at around 3:20 a.m. near Malcolm X Boulevard and Quincy Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Advertisement
The first officer is the son of a retired policeman whose life may also have been saved by a protective vest when a bullet struck it several years ago, Police Commissioner William Bratton said during a news conference.
One officer was struck in the chest but was protected by a bullet proof vest; the other had a bullet in his hip, according to the NYPD. “He suffered blunt force trauma”. Both are thankfully in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.
The suspect remains in critical condition. Both are plainclothes, anti-crime officers assigned to the 81st Precinct.
“I wouldn’t say they’re O.K., but they are alive thankfully”, another police source said about the injured officers.
A spokesman for the New York Police Department said the notification was made as a precaution while investigators continue to try to piece together exactly what happened early Saturday morning. Mayor de Blasio said in a statement that the officers “were alert”, although he declined to give their names.
The incident marks the second time this month that NYPD officers were shot on duty. Shots were fired, with the suspect being hit numerous times.
Officers engaged in gunfire with the armed suspect after he crashed into a marked patrol auto while traveling the wrong-way at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard.
Asked what may have prompted Funes to go on his shooting spree, NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton responded: ‘His history is what might have prompted him’.
A total of eight officers were at the scene in three separate cars, Bratton said.
One suspect in the auto was shot as five cops returned fire, according to sources.
Advertisement
Police would not release the boroughs in which the officers reside.
