New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, second left, stands by as Police Commissioner William Bratton, second right, speaks at a news conference at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx section of New York City after two New York City police officers were shot. The two officers responding to a robbery in the Bronx were shot and wounded Monday night, and a manhunt was underway for at least two suspects, authorities said. The officers were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.(Photo: Tom McElroy, AP)
NEW YORK – Two police officers have been shot in the Bronx after responding to a robbery, the NYPD confirmed late Monday night, but the injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening. A manhunt is underway for two suspects.
A 30-year-old officer was shot in his left arm and lower back and a 38-year-old officer was hit in his left arm and chest. They were not identified. The officers, who were near the end of their shift when they and three others responded to the robbery report, have been taken to St. Barnabas Hospital.
Both are in a critical but stable condition.
“They went above and beyond the call to protect their fellow New Yorkers,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference early Tuesday. “Thank God the officers are doing well and will recover.”
Police Commissioner William Bratton said the five plainclothes officers, part of an anti-crime unit, were in a car when they spotted two possible suspects in the robbery — one outside a Chinese restaurant and another inside it.
He said when the officers got out, the suspect in the restaurant opened fire, forcing the officers to shoot back. The two suspects fled and police believe they carjacked a vehicle occupied by two women. The car was found abandoned and a revolver was found nearby. No further details about the women was made public.
Bratton said a man later walked into New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in upper Manhattan with a gunshot wound to his back. Police are trying to determine if he is connected to the case.
The commissioner said police are reviewing video that they hope will help them identify the suspects.
The incident comes just a little more than two weeks after two NYPD officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were fatally shot in Brooklyn on Dec. 20th by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who also fatally shot himself and who family members said suffered from mental disturbances.
But unlike then, the officers shot Monday were not targeted by the gunman, Deputy Chief Kim Royster said.
It also comes at a time when relations between the police department and the mayor are strained, as well as between between residents and the police.
The organization COP SHOT, Citizens Outraged at Police Being Shot, has offered a $10,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.
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