Cops: Man wounded by police after he kills wife

A gunman whose estranged wife had a court-issued protective order against him was wounded in a shootout Thursday with Hempstead police officers responding to a domestic dispute at the couple's home.

The officers then went inside the home and found the wife fatally shot and stabbed, along with a second woman with a gunshot wound, a law enforcement source said.

Village police identified the shooter as Leonard Reed and declined to disclose the wife's name. But her family said she is Diane Parker Reed, who public records say was 42.

She had the protective order against Reed stemming from an earlier domestic violence altercation, details of which were unavailable Thursday.

Amid the couple's latest dispute Thursday, gunfire erupted about 1:35 p.m., almost as soon as the officers arrived at the home, on Roosevelt Street between Commander Avenue and Boylston Street, a block from Garden City.

As officers pulled up, Leonard Reed was standing outside the front door, police said.

"Put your hands above your head," officers shouted, guns drawn and crouching behind a patrol car, an amateur iPhone video recorded by a neighbor and reviewed by Newsday shows.

Reed opened fire. The officers -- a sergeant and three rank-and-file officers -- took cover and returned fire, striking Reed in the ribs, Hempstead police Chief Michael McGowan said.

Those officers had known about the existing order of protection because the lieutenant dispatcher who sent them there told them about it, McGowan said. Authorities would not say how many total bullets were fired, but witnesses said they heard numerous gunshots.

With Reed wounded, the officers then went inside and found the women. Both Leonard Reed and the surviving woman, who had been shot in the chest, were taken to Nassau University Medical Center, in East Meadow. Criminal charges are pending against Reed, McGowan said.

The law enforcement source said an autopsy will determine whether Diane Reed was killed by the stabbing or gunfire.

Keith Burgess, 46, of Uniondale said Diane Reed feared her husband. "She was deathly afraid of him," said Burgess, a youth pastor and a close family friend of Diane Reed. "They were in a very abusive relationship."

Burgess said Leonard Reed had threatened to kill her once. And about a year ago, Burgess said, he had to take her to the hospital after Reed pistol-whipped her in the head.

"This is so devastating," he said. "I am at a loss for words."

With Chau Lam

and Gary Dymski