NYPD: Two men fatally shot by cops in separate incidents
NYPD Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey discusses two police shootings — one in Queens and one in Brooklyn — during a news conference Saturday night. Credit: NYPD Twitter
Two men who allegedly fired at officers were killed by the police Saturday night during separate shootings — one in Queens and another in Brooklyn.
In the first incident, sometime after 6 p.m. there was a gunfight between a man and cops who went to his home on 116th Avenue near Francis Lewis Boulevard in Queens after he called 911 to make “numerous threats” against the governor, elected officials, dignitaries and police officers, according to Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey.
Later, in Brooklyn, a passenger who had fled a car stop fired at an officer who chased him, and the officer returned fire and struck and killed the man, Maddrey said.
No officers were struck by gunfire in either incident.
“It was a high volume of rounds fired tonight — probably north of 100,” Maddrey said in Queens, where he discussed both incidents. He said that further searches would be conducted during the daytime: “We’re still counting the number of rounds fired.”
In the Queens incident, at least six officers fired at the man, who fired at officers after brandishing a gun, according to Maddrey. After being shot by the police, the man was handcuffed, and despite officers’ attempts at “lifesaving measures,” including trying to cover his wounds and CPR, the man later died at a hospital, Maddrey said. The officers were treated for injuries such as trauma, high blood pressure and ringing in the ears.
Maddrey said the man had placed two threatening 911 calls, the first at about 6:05 p.m., identifying himself by name: “He made numerous threats. He threatened our governor. He threatened numerous elected officials and dignitaries. And he threatened members of the police department. And he clearly stated that he was gonna blow the head off of the first police officers that he saw.”
Led by a sergeant, officers from the 113th Precinct had gone to the man’s house and were several houses away when the man emerged: “He immediately started cursing at the officers and refused to listen to the commands of the officers as they told him to take his hands out his pockets, to put his hands up, to stop moving.”
It was then that he brandished, and discharged, the firearm, and the police officers fired as well.
In the Brooklyn incident, uniformed officers in an unmarked vehicle had stopped the driver of a Nissan who was seen committing traffic violations on Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn. That car, with several occupants, had been stopped on Nevins Street for about seven or eight minutes when the officers told the occupants to get out of the car. That’s when one of the passengers jumped out and ran away, precipitating the shooting, police said.
With Brinley Hineman
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
