Knife-Wielding Tire Theft Suspect Shot, Wounded By Police Remains At Large
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The search continues for a suspect who was shot by a police officer after threatening the officer with a knife and refusing to drop the weapon, police said.
And despite the NYPD's efforts to bring down violent crime, this is the third police-involved shooting this week.
Plainclothes 70th Precinct officers were in unmarked cars at East 19th Street in Flatbush early Friday morning, looking specifically for a group of thieves who have been stealing the tires off of cars, 1010 WINS' Gary Baumgarten reported.
They caught them in the act at around 4 a.m., CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported.
Knife-Wielding Tire Theft Suspect Shot, Wounded By Police Remains At Large
The suspects managed to get one tire off of a red Honda Fit. They removed the lug nuts off of two more tires and had a cinderblock ready to prop the car up on, Rincon reported.
As police approached the men they fled in a white Subaru.
As the men came back to retrieve their tools, they tried to take off a second time, police blocked them in with an unmarked police car.
One suspect was arrested but another refused to stay in the car, police said. Once outside of the car, the suspect pulled out a knife and threatened a sergeant, police said.
The sergeant told him to drop the knife but he didn't, police said.
The sergeant fired a shot at the suspect and wounded him, but he still managed to take off running.
Rob Richardson said the incident happened in front of his house, and he is happy police are proactive in his neighborhood.
"If somebody draws or appears to draw a weapon on you at 4 o'clock in the morning when you're committing a crime, I think the officer absolutely has a right to defend himself if he feels he's threatening," Richardson said.
Neighbors have noticed cars targeted in this part of the neighborhood lately.
"You know they just break the glass and come in and take whatever they want if they leave things inside the car," said neighbor Merl Chavis.
"I heard yelling and screaming. I heard a gun shot," neighbor Roberta Newman told Rincon.
"The two got away and one they got. That was pretty much all I saw," neighbor Harold Boatswaia told Rincon.
Neighbors say stripped car and break-ins are not too unusual here, Rincon reported.
"Just last week there was a car that was stripped, but normally this is a fairly decent neighborhood," Boatswaia said. "We don't get too much of that, but it happens occasionally."
Jean New noticed a car up the street stripped of its tires just last week in a brazen theft. "Like wow, how do they take all 4 tires and the alarm don't go off?"
A recent CBS2 News report showed exactly how fast the car-stripping crews can operate in the middle of the night.
City councilman Jumaane Williams (D-45th) represents this part of Brooklyn and has been hearing about the tire thefts and break-ins. He says police have been actively investigating, Rincon reported.
It's always unfortunate when anybody is shot, but it sounds like police were doing the job they were supposed to do," said Williams. "They were are doing the job that the community actually asked them to come in because this was happening in the morning. Like literally there was a row of cars one night. They were just smashing one after the other."
Police know who the wounded suspect is. They know who they are looking for and are checking hospitals sheet, Rincon repoted.
Charges are still pending against the man in custody.
The earlier issues this week happened on Tuesday night on First Avenue between 101st and 102nd streets in East Harlem, and at the Twin Parks South West Apartments on Valentine Avenue in the Bronx on Wednesday morning. Both suspects allegedly pointed guns at police and refusing to drop them.
