Man Shot During Police-Involved Shooting In Midwood, Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A police pursuit in Midwood, Brooklyn ended with gunfire Thursday, as investigators said officers shot an armed robbery suspect as he tried to make a getaway.
As CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported, the normally quiet Brooklyn neighborhood was rattled with the piercing sound of gunfire rang out around 11:15 a.m. Thursday.
As 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported, it had all started a short time earlier with the robbery at a Verizon store at East 2nd Street and Avenue P, where two men armed with a gun stuffed about 50 phones into a bag and took off.
"They ordered the employees into a back room at the location. They then removed a quantity of cell phones from the store," said NYPD Chief of Brooklyn Detectives Patrick Conry.
Fernando Sanchez works at a juice bar across from the Verizon store that was robbed.
"Everybody was like in shock; panic," he said. "I mean, it's very scary."
The store owner told CBS2 there were two more suspects who were waiting in a getaway car. The owner got a description of the black Jeep they in which they sped off while the owner's son called 911, Jones reported.
Police officers spotted the vehicle and began chasing the suspects. The suspects then ditched their vehicle and carjacked another, Jones reported.
"After the Jeep they were driving... impacted a car in the corner, the exited the vehicle," one witness told 1010 WINS' Al Jones.
Police chased the suspects to East 14th Street at Avenue O, where the suspects crashed the stolen vehicle into a parked car and fled on foot.
A witness named Joe said one of the suspects ran right by him.
"And one perp running on this side that almost bumped into me. He kept on running," Joe said.
At that point, one of the suspects turned toward officers with a gun in his hand and police opened fire, hitting the suspect, Jones reported.
"Three males fled the vehicle. One of those males was brandishing a firearm. The uniform police officer fired several rounds at that male," Conry said.
The suspect who was shot was seen face down on the ground. He was rushed to Kings County Hospital Center in serious condition.
"Very scared and shaken up; very shaken up," said neighborhood resident Joe Zar.
Zar said he was walking into his home on East 14th Street just after 11 a.m. when he heard all the chaos down the street at Avenue O.
"I was in my driveway and I heard a crash, and then I came out and then I heard four shots," Zar said. "I looked to the corner and I saw the cop running after one guy that was going this way, and there was two other guys running on the other side."
Witness Sabrina Lim said she came outside as soon as she heard police on the scene.
"I was kind of scared of what was happening," Lim said. "Nothing really happens on this block."
At least one person was in custody late Thursday related to the robbery, Jones reported. A third suspect was still on the loose.
The unidentified suspect was wearing a gray hoodie, police said.
Two guns were also recovered at the scene. Police released photos of both.
Police Thursday were also looking into whether the suspects are connected to several similar robberies in the area over the last few weeks.