A Yonkers detective was shot in the abdomen Wednesday afternoon, and was hospitalized in critical condition after losing a lot of blood but is expected to survive, a senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the case said Thursday.
The officer, a decorated cop with many past gun-related arrests during his years of service, according to the sources, suffered severe injuries in the shooting inside a deli at the corner of Elm and Linden streets around 2 p.m.
Members assigned to the FBI's Westchester Safe Streets task force were conducting a gun investigation in plainclothes, without body cameras and with FBI agents, as part of an undercover sting when the gunfire erupted, the sources said.
As law enforcement went to arrest three suspects, one tried to push past the Yonkers officer. The cop pushed back, and the suspect fired one shot from his pocket, striking the detective in his abdomen.
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Police said that an FBI agent returned fire, striking the suspect who was taken to a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead, according to Yonkers Police Commissioner John Mueller.
The injured cop, who has not been identified, was conscious and alert when taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where police described his condition as serious but stable after undergoing surgery for life-threatening internal injuries. He suffered injuries to his colon, intestines and kidneys, causing him to lose a "tremendous amount of blood," but Mueller said he was expected to survive.
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The family of the injured officer arrived at the hospital via helicopter shortly after the shooting.
The suspect has not yet been identified by police, but his mother was at the scene of the shooting and identified him as Bryant Jackson Adams Jr. The mother, Vanessa Jackson, said her 28-year-old son was not involved in any kind of illegal activity, and that they were visiting from the Atlanta area.
"You won't let me identify his body, nothing. You just killed my child, now you're having him sit in the morgue, telling me 'Oh well, what do you want me to do?'" Jackson said as she demanded answers from police. "I want to see my son...I have been to Jacobi, St. John's, Yonkers General just to find out my son was laying right there at St. Joseph's Hospital."
The police commissioner said that the entire incident was captured on surveillance video, giving them "a pretty good handle on what happened and how it happened." Still, Jackson said her son did not deserve to die.
"Whatever the case is, I’m not saying he was right or wrong, because I have no idea what happened. But I know it didn’t take a kill shot to kill my child. You could’ve wounded him," she said. "No mother should have to bury their child. The children usually bury their parents. Not me burying my child."
The two other suspects the task force was going after were in custody, police said, but they were still sorting out information from witnesses and possible suspects. No other officers were believed to have fired their weapon, aside from the FBI agent who shot the suspected shooter.
Two illegal guns — including the alleged shooter's weapon — were recovered at the scene.
Two law enforcement sources say the Yonkers detective, who has been with the department for 27 years, was set to retire in the coming days.
The FBI website describes the task forces as those that "pursue violent gangs through sustained, proactive, coordinated investigations to obtain prosecutions on violations such as racketeering, drug conspiracy, and firearms violations."
Following the incident, the FBI issued a statement saying: "Earlier today, members of our Westchester County Safe Streets task force were involved in a shooting incident in Yonkers, NY. As this is an ongoing investigation, we have no further information to provide at this time."
It is not the first time at the bodega where the shooting occurred has been the setting for violence. Three suspects, one as young as 17, were arrested and charged last year in connection to a daytime drive-by shooting in June 2021, after authorities said someone inside a car opened fire at the same intersection. That shooting left three men and a woman shot, but all survived.
