MYFOXNY.COM -
An off-duty NYPD officer who confronted two robbery suspects in the Bronx was shot by one of them, police said. The officer, who is expected to live, fatally shot one of the suspects.
Officer Ivan Marcano was brought to Bronx Lebanon hospital for treatment. He was listed in stable condition on Thursday.
Marcano, 27, was in a car with his girlfriend when she saw two men robbing someone, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. Marcano got out of the car and identified himself as a police officer, Kelly said. That is when one suspect shot him, Kelly said.
"The suspects fled in a car as Officer Marcano, now wounded, climbed back into the passenger seat of the car, with his girlfriend behind the wheel. A block north, at the intersection of Burnside Avenue and Harrison, Officer Marcano's girlfriend, intent on getting him to the hospital, sounded her car horn several times," Kelly said.
The car in front of them, a white Mustang, lurched forward, slammed into a livery car and another, jumped the curb, and stopped, Kelly said. That is when three men got out and started to run away. Marcano realized they were in fact the robbery suspects, Marcano exited the car again.
"Holding his left hand over his wound, with his gun in his right hand, Marcano moved to the middle of the street, took cover behind the livery cab, yelled to passersby to 'get down,' and fired," Kelly said. "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."
Marcano shot one suspect in the head, killing him. The other other suspects split up and ran away, Kelly said. Marcano followed for a short distanced and just happened to come across an ambulance, which rushed him to the hospital, Kelly said.
Officers recovered one gun at the scene.
The NYPD mobilized dozens of officers in pursuit of the other suspect.
The shooting happened at 85 West Burnside Avenue in the University Heights section of the borough.
Video from SkyFoxHD shows several police vehicles and dozens of police officers in the streets of the neighborhood, areas blocked off by crime scene tape, and a white Ford Mustang under scrutiny.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined Commissioner Kelly and several high-ranking police officials at Bronx Lebanon to visit Marcano.
"Police Officer Marcano was protecting our city and putting his life on the line, even when he was off-duty. And it's the work of officers like him that have pushed the number of shootings this year down and has us on pace for an all-time record low in murders this year," Bloomberg said at a news conference at the hospital. "But it's on nights like this when you have to ask yourself, 'What is everyone in Washington doing? Why aren't the two men who want to lead our country offering real plans to protect the men and women who protect us? Where are they tonight while we are here?'"
A $10,000 reward is being offered by the organization COP SHOT for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects wanted in connedtion with the shooting.
Call 1-800-COP-SHOT.
The organization says all information is kept confidential and no names are taken.
Just a day earlier, a Nassau County cop was shot and killed in a traffic stop at the border of Queens and Nassau.
MyFoxNY.com is updating the story.
A police command center on the scene of the shooting of an officer. (Photo by Joel Waldman | Fox 5 News)
