New York police officer shot in standoff

By Canberk Yuksel

NEW YORK

A New York Police Department (NYPD) officer late Thursday was shot and wounded during a standoff with a suspect near a Brooklyn home, local officials said.

The incident took place as police responded to a 911 call around 4.30 p.m. (0830GMT), Police Commissioner James O’Neill told journalists at a news conference.

The mother of the suspect, 29, whose identity has been withheld, called to report her mentally-disturbed son, according to O'Neill.

When officers arrived and approached the front of the building, the suspect opened gunfire and struck an officer several times, the commissioner said.

The officer, who is 30 years old and remains unidentified, sustained an injury to his right arm, and his bulletproof vest deflected two shots on his chest, the commissioner said, showing the vest to the reporters.

“Small-caliber round, so you’re not going to be able to see where the impact was, but I did see the blunt force injury trauma on the officer’s chest,” O’Neill said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said: “This young man was definitely saved by his vest, made all the difference here."

The officer, who has been with the force for two years, was conscious when he was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.

“What could have been just another day, just another call turned into something much worse, and thank God our officer’s going to come through it,” de Blasio said. “He’s a brave young man. He had a great attitude. He was actually, you know, trying to even make light of the situation in his own hospital bed; showing a lot of , a lot of energy.”

After the initial standoff, the mother was rescued from the house, while the suspect barricaded himself in the building for hours, according to the police.

When officers entered the building, they found the suspect dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, and recovered a semiautomatic weapon and a revolver, along with ammunition.