Teen Charged With Shooting NYPD Officer During Chase

A Long Island teenager has been arrested for allegedly shooting a plainclothes police officer twice in the leg.

Elijah Foster Bey, of Port Washington, was charged Monday with attempted murder and criminal use of a weapon. Bey also was wounded in the exchange of gunfire on Sunday in Brooklyn.

Both he and Officer Richard Ramirez were in stable condition in separate hospitals.

Police say the 29-year-old Ramirez was patrolling the streets as a member of a three-man anti-crime team when they encountered the 17-year-old on a bike.

Authorities say the suspect ran into a building and made it up to the third floor, where he turned around and opened fire on the officers.

Police say two of the officers fired back, letting off 11 rounds.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised Ramirez at a news conference held at Kings County Medical Center yesterday, where the officer was undergoing surgery.

"If Officer Ramirez and his team had not confronted the suspect, the shooter would still be on the street, and he may well have killed innocent New Yorkers,'' the mayor said.

Ramirez, 29, was patrolling the streets as a member of a three-man anti-crime team in East New York at about 8 p.m. when they encountered a 17-year-old boy on a bike on a sidewalk in Brooklyn, authorities said.

When they began to approach the suspect, the teenager "immediately threw down the bike and ran,'' said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

The teen's gun had a capacity of seven rounds, the commissioner said. He said six rounds were expended and police were trying to determine if those rounds were fired at the scene by the suspect.

Ramirez, a four-year veteran of the force, was struck twice in the right leg, authorities said. Kelly said police also were trying to determine if the officer's vest may have been struck.

Foster-Bey was struck three times, Kelly said.

He was taken to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, where he was in critical but stable condition, the commissioner said. He has been charged with attempted murder and criminal use of a firearm.