Officials: One NYPD officer shot dead, one wounded in NYC
NYPD personnel and others gather at Harlem Hospital after a Friday night's shooting that killed one officer and critically injured another in Harlem. Credit: Craig Ruttle
One NYPD officer was killed and another was critically wounded in a shooting in Manhattan on Friday night, the NYPD commissioner said.
The officers were shot in Harlem when they responded to a domestic dispute, police said. Both were shot in the head, according to a police source. The suspect, Lashawn McNeil, 47, also was dead, police said during a news conference held just after 10 p.m. Friday.
The officer, identified only as a 22-year-old man, died at NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at the hospital.
"He suddenly without warning opened fire on them," Sewell said.
Sewell was accompanied at the hospital by Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD officials.
"It is our city against the killers," Adams said. "This was an attack on the city of New York. It is an attack on the children and families of this city."
Three officers responded to the domestic dispute at West 135th Street and Lenox Avenue at 6:15 p.m., said NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.
NYPD members walk from a door at Harlem Hospital in the wake of a Friday night's shooting on West 135th Street in Harlem. Credit: Craig Ruttle
A woman had called police over a dispute she was having with her son, Essig said. The officers were told that the son with whom the mother has been having the dispute was in the back bedroom — down a narrow hallway, Essig said.
"As our first officers approach the bedroom, the door swings open, and numerous shots are fired, striking both officers, one fatally, and one is here in Harlem Hospital in critical condition," Essig said. "As the perpetrator attempt[s] to exit, he is confronted by our third officer, who fires two rounds, striking him in the arm and head."
Police dispatch audio captured some of the chaotic scene, including an officer screaming for assistance and another officer informing the dispatcher that two officers had been shot.
There were conflicting media reports in the immediate aftermath of the shooting on the number of officers killed.
Inside the hospital entrance, a line of officers stood shoulder to shoulder at the top of some stairs.
Adams addressed cops in the room at the hospital: "I'm going to ask you something: No matter how painful this moment is, don't give up on these people in this city. Don't give up. Don't feel as though they don't want you to do your job. Twitter and Instagram and social media — they're not the people you're protecting."
Gov. Kathy Hochul in a statement Friday night said: "My thoughts are with the family who answered the phone to receive the news they've always dreaded: that their loved one, who had sworn to protect and serve New Yorkers by joining the NYPD, will not be coming home."
"I am praying for the recovery of his partner, the officer who is fighting for his life, and for his family," Hochul said in a statement. "I know that all of New York is standing with these officers and their families."
In a statement Nassau County Police Benevolent Association President Thomas Shevlin said: "The Nassau County PBA stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the NYPD and we pray for the families of the two officers who were brutally killed and injured. . . . We cannot remain silent as criminals continue to operate without fear of repercussions."
Two other NYPD officers were shot in separate incidents in the Bronx and on Staten Island this week. Both survived, police said.
On Thursday, a narcotics detective was shot in the leg on Staten Island during an execution of a warrant in a drug case, police said. That officer, identified by police sources as Dominick Libretti, 33, of Staten Island, was taken to Staten Island University Medical Center.
In the Bronx on Tuesday, officer Kaseem Pennant, 27, was shot after grappling with a 16-year-old boy who was armed with a handgun, police said. Pennant was hospitalized at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx and has since been released, police said.
The last NYPD officer fatally shot in the line of duty, Brian Mulkeen, was hit by friendly fire while struggling with an armed man after chasing and shooting at him in the Bronx in September 2019.
With Keldy Ortiz
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
