An NYPD officer who had just gotten into his car after signing off work in Brooklyn early Wednesday fired seven shots at a man with a gun who tapped on his window before he could pull out of the parking lot, officials and a senior NYPD official with knowledge of the investigation tell News 4.
Police officials initially had said the 28-year-old suspect may have been trying to carjack the officer. The senior NYPD official later said the man with the gun had gotten into an earlier confrontation with someone inside a nearby bar and lounge and his friends drove up in a car and handed him the weapon. He opened fire outside the lounge, striking no one, the official said -- then took off and fired shots at a vehicle in the parking lot of a PetSmart. He also allegedly fired at two vehicles near the Brooklyn Terminal Market; it wasn't clear who was inside those cars.
The officer went to pull out of the NYPD parking lot at 2:07 a.m., three minutes after signing out of work, and tried to drive off when he saw the man with the gun but realized his car was in park, the senior NYPD official said. As the suspect knocked on his window, he fired his weapon more than a half-dozen times; it all happened on East 87th Street and Foster Avenue in Canarsie before sunrise.
NYPD officials initially said the suspect fired at the officer, but further details on that weren't clear. At least one of the seven shots fired by the officer hit the suspect in chest; he was hospitalized in stable condition Wednesday afternoon. The officer wasn't hurt, but was said to be evaluated for tinnitus.
The senior NYPD official says the suspect had hundreds of dollars in cash at the time; he also was said to have at least two weapons, including the one he showed. No other details were immediately available.
Police say their investigation is ongoing.
