The man an NYPD chief was in an off-duty shooting incident with upstate is believed to have been harassing the chief’s daughter, police and police sources said Tuesday, as the high-ranking cop has been stripped of his gun and shield and put on desk duty.
The announcement of the personnel move comes a day after it was learned that Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley, the commanding officer of the newly created Patrol Borough North Bronx, was involved in the Rockland County confrontation Sunday night.
Haverstraw police said in a statement that the incident happened around 7:45 p.m. in a ShopRite parking lot in Garnerville, a hamlet in the Town of Haverstraw. Gurley lives in the same county.
During what was described as a fight, Gurley’s gun “was removed from the individual’s waistband, resulting in [one] round being discharged from the weapon,” the statement said. It is not clear from the statement who had possession of the gun when the shot was fired.
No one was struck by the shot, though both Gurley and the other man were treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released.
The statement said the confrontation “may have stemmed from the other male individual allegedly harassing the NYPD member’s daughter.”
The man and the daughter are acquaintances and have never been in a relationship, the statement also said.
Haverstraw police are working with the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office to determine if anyone will be charged.
Details of the incident with Gurley’s daughter were not yet clear
Gurley, a 26-year veteran, did not respond to a request for comment. In addition to having been placed on modified assignment as of Tuesday afternoon, he could face departmental disciplinary charges.
The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau is also conducting an investigation.
The incident comes just four days after Mayor Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, to much fanfare, announced the Bronx had officially been split into two distinct NYPD patrol commands, a restructuring many hope will help fight disproportionately high crime rates in the borough.
The Bronx accounts for more than one-third of the city’s murders this year, but, except for Staten Island, every other borough in the city is split into two patrol commands. An additional 200 officers will be assigned to the Bronx as it is divided into separate north and south borough commands. Patrol boroughs are commands that oversee local police precinct operations.
Through May 17, the Bronx was the scene of 32 of the city’s 89 homicides, 36% of its shooting victims and 36% of its shooting incidents, despite being the city’s second smallest borough by population, NYPD stats show.
“Today is long overdue, and a historic moment for the residents of the Bronx, for the officers doing this work, and for a borough that has carried one of the heaviest public safety burdens anywhere in the city,” Tisch said in announcing the creation of a second Bronx patrol borough.
“It’s about bringing a real commitment to lowering crime in this borough,” Mamdani said of the move, speaking on the steps of the new Patrol Borough Bronx South command headquarters at the newly renovated former 40th Precinct stationhouse in Mott Haven.
Joining Mamdani and Tisch at the press conference in hailing the move were a bevy of officials, including Gov. Hochul and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark.