Cop Shoots Assault Suspect in Shoulder in Brooklyn

A man wanted for assault was shot in the shoulder by police after he drove a car toward two officers in Brooklyn Tuesday morning, authorities say. 

Four officers assigned to a Brooklyn warrant squad were searching for the suspect near Vernon Avenue and Tompkins Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant at about 8:45 a.m., police said. The suspect, 36-year-old Jayvaughn Shipman, was wanted for a felony assault in which he allegedly hit someone with a brick. 

The officers, who were in plain clothes, spotted the suspect parked in his car and two of the officers walked toward him on foot while the other two pulled in front of him in a van to stop him from driving off. 

The suspect then drove onto the sidewalk and toward the two officers on foot, police said. One of officers then shot the suspect once in the shoulder. 

Witnesses said Shipman had been asleep in the vehicle and panicked when he was confronted. 

"When he wakes up, he wakes up with a gun in his face," said Kendrick Garner. "So automatically he's going to panic, and he was nervous. And they just shot him." 

Community advocate Tony Herbert thought police "exercised great constraint."

"It means our police officers are getting it, they want to work with our community not to take a life," he said. "He's under arrest and he's going to the hospital, he's under arrest and will face the day in court." 

Shipman was taken to Methodist Hospital in stable condition. 

A nearby elementary school was locked down as a precaution while authorities investigated. The lockdown was later lifted, and all students and faculty were safe, the Department of Education said in a statement.  

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