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More Details Emerge In Harlem Block Party Shootout

NEW YORK (WCBS 880/1010 WINS/AP) -- A police officer says he saw a gun in the hand of a collapsed man who had been shot multiple times in a burst of bullets at a Harlem block party. Another one says a third officer reported the man had shot at him.

The details emerged a Manhattan court hearing Thursday in the weapons-possession case against Angel Alvarez.

WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reports prosecutors were required only to show there was reasonable cause to believe Alvarez committed a felony to keep him in jail during the hearing. Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Bonnie G. Wittner concluded there was. The grand jury has another 45 days to investigate the shooting during which Alvarez will remain in prison.

Judge Wittner's decision "gives us the time to do a thorough investigation into this matter. We will put that time to good use," the Manhattan district attorney's office said.

Alvarez arrived in court limping and with his arm in a sling, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reports.

Alvarez survived after being shot at least 20 times during a chaotic Aug. 8 scene that started with a street fight and ended with a 46-bullet police fusillade that likely killed another man, Luis Soto.

Police have said Alvarez and Soto got into a fight, and gunfire erupted as they struggled over a gun. Police have said Alvarez then fired toward officers, and they shot back.

Alvarez' lawyer Matthew Galluzzo says his client didn't shoot at officers and anything he did was only in self-defense against Soto, who tried to shoot him first, Cornell reports.

"Everything they've said so far is entirely consistent with the defense that we've put forward this entire time," Galluzzo told Papa, "I haven't heard anything to contradict it yet."

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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