Officers shot and killed a parolee who police say was holding a gun to his girlfriend's head at a public housing complex in the Bronx Wednesday.
Officers responded to an apartment at the Twin Park West complex on Valentine Avenue in the West Bronx after receiving a call around 8 a.m. about a man threatening his girlfriend with a gun. A witness later told police that she saw the man, 19, holding a gun to the 19-year-old woman's head in an elevator.
When two officers arrived at the scene, the NYPD says, the door to the girlfriend's apartment was slightly open and they saw the man pacing back and forth. When they yelled for him to come out of the apartment, the man allegedly ran out of eyesight. The officers then heard a woman say, "Help me, help me, he is going to kill me," and they kicked in a door to the apartment's bedroom.
Police say the officers saw the man holding the woman in a chokehold with a gun to her head. The man then pointed the firearm at the officers as the woman was able to break free, and two cops opened fire, authorities said. The man was hit several times.
Both the man and woman were taken to the hospital, where the man was pronounced dead.
The woman, who had been pistol-whipped in the face and grazed in the shoulder by a bullet, is expected to survive.
The two officers who fired shots, along with two others who responded to the scene, were treated for ringing in their ears.
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A .38-caliber revolver was recovered from the apartment after the shooting, police say.
Officers say the man who was killed was on parole for a robbery conviction and had a history of prior arrests. His identity isn't being released until his family is notified of his death.
