A young girl suffered serious injuries when she was shot by a man who opened fire on Long Island police while barricaded inside his home, according to police.
The incident occurred around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the hamlet of Ridge, Suffolk County police said. Detectives went to an apartment on Ticonderoga Court to follow up on a murder that took place in Islip on June 19.
The suspect in that case, 38-year-old Gary Jones, fired shots at investigators after they arrived. According to police, detectives were interviewing a friend of Jones when they realized that the suspect was in the home, and then told the friend and other children inside to get outside.
That's when Jones came out from another room with a gun in hand and opened fire on the detectives, who quickly backed out the house, police said.
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One of the bullets fired by Jones whizzed through a wall and struck a 3-year-old girl in the next apartment, according to police. Responding officers, realizing there was no time to wait for an ambulance, took matters into their own hands.
Suffolk police officer Christian Hernandez and detective Luis Cabrera worked to stop the bleeding, then carried her to a police car and drove her to Riverhead Hospital.
The child had surgery for a gunshot wound and was expected to survive.
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A police robot was sent into the apartment right after the shots were fired, and found Jones dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Suffolk County police said.
Police body camera footage captured her father's anguish. James Toney held his daughter after a bullet struck her abdomen and exited out her back.
"That's my daughter, that's my daughter. The shots came through my wall as she was playing on the couch," Toney explains as he shows the bullet holes in the family home.
Toney called it a night he wouldn't wish on anyone.
"I'm here just raising my family, trying to give them a better way. It seems like even inside your home, you gotta watch what your neighbor is doing," he said.
