NYC mayor, police commissioner blast lawmakers after they say a detective was shot by a repeat offender
A New York City police detective was shot Tuesday morning in Manhattan, and officials say the alleged gunman has a history of arrests and was out on parole.
The shooting happened inside an apartment at 384 Madison St., a NYCHA complex known as the Vladeck Houses.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the Emergency Service Unit was serving a search warrant for illegal firearms shortly after 5 a.m. when the suspect, identified as 35-year-old Edwin Rivera, opened fire on them through the door of a sixth-floor apartment. One bullet hit an officer's ballistic shield, but the officers were not hurt and they did not return fire.
Tisch said the suspect used a couch to barricade himself inside, and a hostage negotiation team was able to FaceTime with the suspect. At one point, officers thought a female was being held hostage in the apartment, but that turned out not to be true.
After losing contact with the suspect, officers tried again to get inside shortly after 8:15 a.m., Tisch said.
"While our officers were in the doorway, the perpetrator shot multiple rounds at our officers again. This time, striking an ESU detective with one round in the left shoulder, narrowly missing critical vessels and nerves that could have been life-ending," Tisch said.
The officers then returned fire, shooting the suspect multiple times on the left side of his body. The detective and the suspect were taken to Bellevue Hospital. The detective was later released. The suspect is expected to recover and charges against him are pending.
Suspect on parole after prior gun, narcotics arrests
The detective is a 20-year veteran of the department who has been with the Emergency Service Unit since 2016, police sources tell CBS News New York. He was seen talking and smiling as he was loaded into the ambulance.
"We're grateful for his safety, but we're also angry. We're angry because the shooter is a violent, repeated offender with prior gun arrests, who was on parole for narcotics use and sales," Mayor Eric Adams said during a briefing at the hospital.
Tisch echoed the mayor with strong words, saying, "We should not have been at his door this morning in the first place."
She called the suspect a "career criminal" with prior arrests for guns and narcotics, adding he has been out on parole four times, including for a November arrest for criminal possession of stolen property, in which he was charged only with resisting arrest.
A representative for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the stolen weapon charge would not have made the case bail eligible.
"Although he was on active parole, he was released the very next day," Tisch said, adding, "Why was this individual out of jail and in a position to shoot our officers? How is the system set up to allow one person to commit multiple violent offenses while out on parole with no consequences?
"I asked our elected officials up in Albany, our DAs and our judges: What are you doing here? We should never have had to be at that door this morning. We should never have had a cop shot today," Tisch added.
NYPD officials also showed a photo of a gun they said was recovered at the scene.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. You can also submit a tip via their website.
