Man cleared in Harlem police shootout

A bullet-riddled man whom police accused of sparking a deadly hail of officers' gunfire was cleared of all criminal charges, walking out of court free after six months behind bars as a grand jury investigated the mayhem that followed a summer block party.

The panel voted to dismiss charges against Angel Alvarez, who had been arrested on weapons possession counts, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Jon Veiga told a court . It wasn't immediately clear whether anyone else would be charged in the shooting, which left one person dead and six wounded. Prosecutors declined to comment.

Alvarez, hit by at least 15 bullets in the Aug. 8 shooting, said he had been confident of his innocence but concerned about how grand jurors might see conflicting versions of events involving police.

"They didn't really have no evidence against me," he said, but "I know it's really difficult to have a case against cops." Police have said officers opened fire after the 24-year-old Alvarez shot at them. Alvarez denies firing at anyone and says he was just defending himself in a fight with an armed man, according to his lawyers.

The violence erupted as hundreds of people left a block party in Harlem. Alvarez and acquaintance Luis Soto, 23, got into a fight amid the crowd.

A witness told police that Soto pulled a gun from his waistband, and gunfire erupted as he and Alvarez struggled over it. The weapon was fired at least twice at the scene, according to an account prosecutors gave at Alvarez' arraignment in August.

Police fired a total of 46 shots. One killed Soto; another wounded a fellow officer, prosecutors said. Another officer, Alvarez and three bystanders also were wounded during the series of gunshots.

At a hearing in August, a police sergeant testified that a fellow officer told him Alvarez had shot at him. Another officer testified that he saw a gun in the wounded Alvarez' hand.

But Alvarez said he wrestled the gun from Soto to protect himself and didn't shoot it, said his lawyers, Matthew Galluzzo and Zachary Johnson.

Grand jurors "learned about the evidence, and they found the truth and what was right in the case," Johnson said.

Four officers involved in the shooting were put on desk duty while the investigation played out. Police have yet to begin their own review because they have been awaiting the results of the criminal probe.

A lawyer representing the officers didn't immediately return a call . The police department declined to comment.