NYPD officer from Freeport sues for no vest upgrade

A police officer is suing New York City because he says it never upgraded his bulletproof vest.

Officer Rodney Lewis, who is from Freeport, was shot in the chest last year during a struggle in Queens with a suspect. He was hit above his bulletproof vest.

He claims in his lawsuit that the city promised to upgrade his vest after a police officer was fatally shot in 2005 through a gap in his vest.

Lewis filed his lawsuit Monday in state Supreme Court in Queens.

City lawyers declined to comment on the lawsuit.   

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said most police officers now have
new vests.

Lewis was struck in the left side of the chest when the suspect's .32-caliber revolver hit the sidewalk and accidentally went off during a scuffle with police in Ridgewood, authorities said.

The bullet struck between panels in Lewis' bullet-resistant vest and lodged in the skin under his left arm without penetrating his chest, police said. Despite the wound, they said, he managed to help his partner arrest Edwin Santana, who court records show pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and robbery in 1993.