Brooklyn, NY – A New York City police officer has been shot and wounded in Brooklyn, but may have been saved from more serious harm by a bulletproof vest.
Details on the shooting were still emerging Thursday afternoon.
Police said officers were responding to Ridgewood Avenue in the Cypress Hills section just after 4:30 p.m. to a report of an emotionally disturbed person when a man opened fire.
Some shots hit the officer’s vest; another hit his arm. Police said the officer was being treated at a hospital.
A video feed from a television news helicopter showed armed police officers with their guns drawn taking cover, first behind an ambulance and then behind an armored vehicle outside a home.
The suspected shooter was holed up in the home for several hours as police converged on the area. Heavily armored officers and numerous ambulances and NYPD cars were at the scene, and a number of blocks were closed during the standoff. Some officers were seen on nearby rooftops.
Police made entry into the home and found the suspect dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said, adding that two guns were recovered at his side.
As reported by Vos Iz Neias