In light of the deaths of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, a new shooting incident has left two NYPD officers injured in the Bronx.
According to the New York Police Department, two officers responded to a robbery call at a store in the Bronx with a description of the suspect late Monday night. CNN reported that after they pulled over a car, one was shot in the elbow, and the other in the back.
"This was a rough neighborhood in the 90s and it still is today," former NYPD officer John Cardillo said to CNN about the area. "Robberies were common when I worked there and there were many shootings. Armed bad guys with the propensity to shoot someone."
The NYPD said that both officers are expected to survive. According to Larry Celona and Kirstan Conley of the New York Post, the officers, dressed in plainclothes, from the 46th Precinct encountered the shooter and an accomplice around 10:30 p.m. Monday; law enforcement sources accused the two suspects of robbing a Chinese restaurant earlier.
NYPD officials told the New York Post that the suspects drove off in a white Camaro after being spotted by the cops, which they later crashed. After a short chase on foot, sources told the New York Post that one of the miscreants fired shots at the officers.
"Witnesses said they heard five or six shots at the location," Celona and Conley wrote.
The New York Post reported that both injured officers were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital and placed into surgery, noting that the injuries sustained by them did not appear to be life-threatening.
Police managed to recover a weapon at the shooting scene and catch one of the suspects, according to the New York Post.
"One of the suspects was later apprehended at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he sought treatment for a gunshot wound," Celona and Conley wrote. "It was not clear how he was shot."
However, the suspected shooter managed to escape from the NYPD and remains at large. According to Celona and Conley, police were looking for a rented black Nissan Altima; the connection of the car to the suspects remains unknown.
The latest shooting comes after the NYPD mourned the loss of Ramos and Liu in the line of duty last month. Their deaths have exposed tensions between the New York Police Department and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, which was best illustrated by some NYPD officers when they turned their backs to him during both funerals and other public events.
