Off-Duty Cop Pursues Bronx Robbery Suspects Even After Getting Shot In Chest
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An off-duty police officer was wounded Wednesday afternoon in the Bronx during a harrowing confrontation with three robbery suspects, two of which were still being actively sought.
The incident happened at 85 W. Burnside Ave., 1010 WINS' Holli Haerr reported.
At a news conference Wednesday night, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters the officer, 27-year-old Ivan Marcano, was in his car with his girlfriend, who noticed a robbery in progress.
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Marcano then instructed his girlfriend to call 911 as he got out of the vehicle with his gun and shield before identifying himself to the suspects as a police officer, Kelly said.
At that point, "one of the suspects fired, striking Officer Marcano in the chest," according to the police commissioner.
The suspects then took off in a white Mustang. As Marcano's girlfriend tried to get him to the hospital, she encountered three vehicles, including the Mustang, at a red light about a block north of where the initial incident occurred, Kelly said.
Police officials said the Mustang lurched forward, striking a black livery cab, which, in turn, struck a parked car and careened onto the sidewalk. Kelly said the three suspects got out of the Mustang just as Officer Marcano realized who they were.
Kelly said Marcano took cover about "two car lengths away from the suspects," warned people nearby to "get down" and opened fire while holding one hand over his gunshot wound.
"He moved a second time, still holding a hand over his wound, to the west side of Harrison Avenue, where he took cover behind a parked car and fired another round at the suspects. In a remarkable display of marksmanship and cool under fire, Officer Marcano fired, striking one of the suspects in the head. He died on the sidewalk next to the Mustang," Kelly said.
Authorities said the suspect's two accomplices split up and that Marcano pursued one of them onto Burnside Avenue while "still clutching his bleeding chest wound."
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"In a great stroke of fortune, Officer Marcano encountered an ambulance that happened to be parked on Burnside Avenue near Harrison. Officer Marcano climbed in and was transported to Bronx Lebanon Hospital," Kelly said.
The officer was in stable condition early Thursday morning. While Marcano was in pain, doctors said it doesn't look like he will need surgery and that he will make a full recovery, CBS 2's Jessica Schneider reported.
"God was with us. God was with Officer Marcano," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
A .380 caliber, semi-automatic handgun was recovered at the scene, Kelly said .
Police were still looking for the two other suspects involved in the incident.
The original mugging victim was robbed of $80 and suffered lacerations to the head after being pistol whipped by the perpetrators during the robbery.
The entire exchange took place in the vicinity of senior housing and health centers. Witnesses also described what they saw to CBS 2's Dave Carlin, including one woman who said there may have been as many as 12 shots fired.
"It's really sad that we have to go through this on a daily basis," Vanessa Torres said. "If people are saying the crime rates are going down, they're absolutely not, not in my opinion. I think they're going up and it's getting worse."
The Bronx shooting came just one day after Darrell Fuller was arrested after police said he shot and killed Nassau County Officer Arthur Lopez, 29, and 52-year-old Queens resident Raymond Facey on the Queens-Nassau County border.
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