An ex-con was taken into custody Sunday in New York City after two police officers were wounded less than 12 hours apart in shootings described as “assassination attempts” by the mayor and police commissioner.
A police lieutenant was in stable condition after being shot Sunday morning in a Bronx precinct headquarters, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said. Shea said a man taken into custody at the scene was also suspected in the previous attack on officers in a police van a few blocks away.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking at a news conference Sunday, said the lieutenant was in stable condition. The officer shot Saturday night was expected to be released from a hospital sometime Sunday, the mayor added.
“Thank God our officers are alive,” de Blasio said. “This was an attempt to assassinate police officers, we need to use the word. It was a premeditated effort to kill.
De Blasio called any attack targeting a police officer “an attack on all of us. It’s intolerable, and we will not accept it.”
Shea said video from the Bronx precinct headquarters shows the man walking in at about 8 a.m. Sunday, pulling out a gun and shooting multiple rounds toward the main desk area. The gunman then walked into an area around the desk and fired more rounds.
“In this chaos, the lieutenant, struck in the upper left arm, returned fire” but did not hit the suspect, Shea said. “This coward immediately laid down, but only after he ran out of bullets.”
Shea said the man had a history of violent crime. He had been released from prison in 2017 after serving time for an attempted murder conviction from a 2002 shooting, Shea said.
The commissioner said he was confident that ballistic tests would show that the suspect committed both shootings.
Shea, describing the shooting Saturday night, said two officers were in a marked van with its lights flashing at about 8:30 p.m. when the incident began. Shea said the police van was parked in an area that had been the scene of recent shootings and drug activity.
The man walked up and began speaking with the officers, possibly asking directions, Shea said. Then, “without provocation,” the man pulled out a gun and opened fire.
Several shots were fired into the van in an “assassination attempt,” Shea said, and one officer was shot in the chin and neck. The officers drove off without returning fire. The wounded officer could be released as soon as Sunday, police said.
“By the grace of God, we are talking about an officer who will be going home,” Shea said. “It is a miracle that we are not here under worse circumstances.”
The gunman fled. Police released photos from surveillance video of the suspect in that shooting.
De Blasio, speaking after Saturday’s shooting, called the attack “unacceptable,” in New York or anywhere.
“I want New Yorkers to be clear, this was an attempt to assassinate police officers,” de Blasio said. “There is too much hatred out there, too much hatred in general and too much hatred directed at our officers.”
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