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NYPD officer killed, another seriously wounded in shooting

US 22 January 2022 08:24 (UTC +04:00)
NYPD officer killed, another seriously wounded in shooting

A New York City officer is dead and another suffered life-threatening injuries after they were shot responding to a domestic violence call in Harlem, police said, Trend reports ABC News.

The officers responded to the scene, where a mother and adult son were fighting in a first-floor apartment. The mother met police in the front of the apartment on West 135 Street at around 6:30 p.m. When they went to a rear room to talk to the son, shots suddenly rang out, striking two of the three responding officers, police said.

The officer, whose name was not released, was 22 years old and married, police said at a press conference Friday night. The second officer remained in critical condition late Friday.

The 47-year-old suspect, Lashawn McNeil, was then shot twice by the other officer, according to police.

The suspect was taken into custody. He was shot once in the arm and once in the head and is in critical condition, police said.

"I am struggling to find the word to express the tragedy we are enduring," NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at the press conference. "We are mourning and we are angry. ... Our department is hurting, our city is hurting. it is beyond comprehension."

McNeil "suddenly, without warning, opened fire on them," said an emotional Sewell, who took over as commissioner this month alongside new Mayor Eric Adams.

The suspect has five previous arrests, including one in New York City for felony narcotics possession in 2003. He was currently on probation for that arrest, police said. Outside the city, he was arrested for unlawful possession of a weapon in 1998, assaulting a police officer in 2002 and two other drug arrests in subsequent years.

This has been a particularly violent week for the New York Police Department. Four NYPD officers have been shot in four incidents this week. The officers in the other two shootings, which took place in the Bronx and Staten Island, did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

"It is our city against the killers," Adams said Friday night. "This was not just an attack on three brave officers, this was an attack on the city of New York. it is an attack o the children and families of New York. We are not going to win this battle by dividing lives. We must save this city together."

The Glock handgun found at the scene of Friday's crime was stolen from Baltimore in 2017, according to police.

"We don't make guns here," Adams said, referring to the proliferation of guns in the city and asking the federal government for help with gun control legislation. "How are we removing thousands of guns off the street and they are still finding their way into New York City?"

Attorney General Merrick Garland also spoke to Sewell Friday night and offered assistance from the Department of Justice or FBI if needed, according to DOJ spokesperson Anthony Coley.

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