3 Police Officers Shot In 2 Separate Incidents In The Bronx And Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A pair of New York City transit officers were shot during a wild incident on a Brooklyn subway train Thursday night.
The officers, identified as Michael Levay, 27 and Lukasz Kozicki, 32, were taken to Lutheran Hospital and are lucky to be alive, CBS 2's Dave Carlin reported.
Panic and chaos erupted as a crowd of subway riders escaped the Manhattan-bound "N" train and platform at the Fort Hamilton Parkway/62nd Street Station, where the suspect died after being shot by a transit officer in plainclothes.
3 Officers Shot In Separate Incidents Thursday Night
"People just started running out of the train saying there was gun shots," witness Jonathan Michael said.
Police said the suspect pulled a gun out of his waistband and fired at least twice when two officers stopped him to give him a summons for going from car to car on a moving train.
"The male stood up as if to comply with the officers and appeared to reach for his wallet, instead he pulled a 9 mm Taurus handgun from his waistband and opened fire," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
In fact, police believe the suspect purposely fired below the waistline and bulletproof vests of the officers.
Officer Kozicki was shot three times, including in both thighs and in the scrotum, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported.
Officer Levay was shot once in the back, with the bullet getting lodged in his bullet-proof vest, authorities said. Levay was able to return fire seven times and kill the suspect, D'Auria reported.
OFF-DUTY COP SHOT IN THE BRONX
Meanwhile, earlier Thursday evening, off-duty Officer Juan Pichardo was shot in the leg trying to break up a robbery in the Bronxwood section of the Bronx.
The incident happened at a car dealership on Boston Road owned by the officer's family. Pichardo is also an employee of the dealership, CBS 2's Dick Brennan reported.
Two gunmen entered the location and announced a holdup while two others waited in a getaway car, police told 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria.
The gunmen began to ransack the dealership before a tussle ensued with Officer Pichardo, who was somehow able to disable a gunman despite being shot in the leg, and hold him down until police arrived.
The other three suspects fled, but were captured a short time later when police realized the suspect in custody was part of a team of robbers based in the Bronx they had been looking for in connection with other holdups, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported.
Officer Pichardo had also given authorities the license plate number of the getaway car. He was taken to Jacobi Medical Center and is listed in stable condition.
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