Police officers shot a shooting suspect in Crown Heights dead on Tuesday night after he refused repeated instructions to drop his weapon when cops found him, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan reported.
Ten officers who confronted the 34-year-old suspect along Bergen Street near Rochester Avenue in Crown Heights all opened fire on him after pleading with him to drop his weapon for more than a minute, which he ultimately refused to do, Monahan said.
The shooting was not related to the ongoing police brutality protests, one of which took place less than three miles away from the scene during the time of the shooting, the chief noted.
Law enforcement sources said the unnamed perpetrator shot a man just before 9:26 pm along Bergen Street. Officers from the 77th Precinct responded to the location after the gunshot set off the NYPD’s ShotSpotter detection system.
Upon arriving at the location, they found the unidentified victim wounded at the corner of Rochester Avenue and Bergen Street. Paramedics brought him to a local hospital in stable condition. The motive for the shooting remains unclear.
Monahan said the officers gave orders for more than a minute to drop the gun. The situation was recorded by the cops’ bodycams as well as by nearby witnesses, who posted videos of the standoff to social media.
“We hear the officers for over a minute [saying] ‘Please drop the gun!’,” Monahan said. “We also have Facebook video where you hear residents filming from behind yelling at the man to drop the gun, drop the gun, drop the gun. That went on for approximately a minute.”
At this point in the investigation, it’s not yet known how many shots the 10 officers fired at the suspect. The gunman’s weapon was recovered at the scene.
The NYPD Force Investigation Squad, which handles police-involved shootings, is handling the investigation.
Watch as @nypdchiefofdept provides details of tonight’s police involved shooting. After officers responded to a 9-1-1 call for a shot spotter activation in Brooklyn they encountered an armed suspect who had reportedly just shot another male. pic.twitter.com/kFfMCe4cNy
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) June 3, 2020
This story first appeared on AMNY.com.
