2 NYC Police Officers Shot in Separate ‘Assassination’ Attempts, Officials Say

Suspect arrested, NYPD confirms

Police said they are still searching for the gunman, however, who was described as a male between the ages of 20 and 30 with a black hooded sweatshirt and jeans. NYPD

A New York Police Department officer was shot early on Feb. 9 in the 41st Precinct in the Bronx, just hours after another NYPD officer was shot in the face while sitting in his patrol vehicle in the same New York City borough.

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea confirmed that the second officer was shot before 8 a.m. at 41st Precinct headquarters. The officer is in stable condition at Lincoln Hospital, Shea said.

The suspect in the second shooting is in custody, and Shea said they “are confident” that he’s the same person who opened fire on two officers on Feb. 8.

“Our investigation is in its very early stages,” he said at a Feb. 9 press conference.

Moments later, Lieutenants Benevolent Association President Lou Turko said the suspect is a “career criminal.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio described the shootings as “assassination” attempts and an “attack on a democratic society.” In the first, which occurred less than 12 hours earlier, a suspect fired at two officers who were sitting in a parked police vehicle.

“This was an attempt to assassinate police officers,” de Blasio said in a Feb. 8 press conference. The suspect walked up to a police vehicle with the “intention of killing police officers.”

The claim of an “assassination attempt” was echoed by Policemen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch, who said it was an “attempted assassination because they were in a marked van” and wearing NYPD uniforms.

Lynch called on de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to recognize how “dangerous the streets are” in New York City and that they have to “start working with us.”

The injured officer is expected to make a full recovery, said Shea.

Shea said two uniformed officers were sitting in an NYPD van in the Morrisania section of the Bronx after 10 p.m. local time on Feb. 8, when a man came up to them and began a conversation about directions. He then grabbed a firearm without provocation and started firing, hitting the driver in the face. The officer’s partner was able to help transport him to a nearby hospital.

“Multiple shots were fired by the perpetrator at close proximity into the van,” he said. “At least one, possibly two, shots” struck the driver in the chin and the neck, narrowly missing a vital artery.

The two were stationed in the area because there was violence, gunfire, and drug activity in recent days, according to Shea. “They were there to protect the residents of that block,” he said.

Cuomo, in a statement, said that he was “horrified by the multiple attacks on [NYPD] officers in the Bronx. N.Y.’s law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe.”

“These attacks are heinous,” he said. “Those responsible will be brought to justice & held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”