An off-duty NYPD officer tracking his stolen car shot and critically wounded a 30-year-old man he suspected of being in a lookout vehicle in the Bronx, police sources said Tuesday.
The officer, who is assigned to the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau, has been placed on modified duty as authorities continue to probe the clash.
He shot a man in the head on W. 231st St. near Albany Crescent in Kingsbridge about 9:15 p.m. Monday, a department spokesperson said.
The officer had spotted a vehicle he believed was used as a lookout after his car was stolen and followed it, according to law enforcement sources.
When that vehicle eventually pulled over and the driver got out, the cop confronted him with his weapon drawn, the sources said.
One or two passengers remained in the suspected lookout car, and when someone inside the car rolled down the window, the officer shot the front-seat passenger in the head, the sources said.
Surveillance video obtained by the Daily News shows a man exiting an SUV and approaching a white sedan with his pistol drawn. A man who can be seen standing behind the sedan appears to kneel as the gunman approaches, the video shows.
As the footage continues, the pair falls out of sight behind the white sedan for about a minute before the sedan suddenly speeds away, revealing one man splayed across the ground as the gunman appears to straddle him.
The owner of a nearby tax prep business was closing shop when he noticed police swarming the area.
“When I left and picked up my car from the garage, that’s when I saw the person lying on the ground. He was between two cars. There were cops all around him,” Francisco Nunez, owner of Frank’s PC Tax, told the Daily News. “He was lying on his side, curled up. I didn’t see any blood.”
The driver of the sedan took the wounded man to New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in upper Manhattan, where he is in critical condition, cops said.
Charges against the shooting victim were not immediately filed and NYPD officials provided no other details, including if or when the officer reported the car theft.
At The Bronx Public, a restaurant located across street, a bullet from the shooting shattered a window and lodged near the ceiling.
There were four customers in the restaurant at the time but none were hurt.
“It was scary,” said bartender Ariana Melo. “The impact was loud. I jumped.”
Police Tuesday afternoon were scouring the area for surveillance footage that could help them determine exactly how the shooting unfolded.