Manhunt on for 2 suspected of shooting NYPD cops responding to robbery, A massive manhunt was on in New York after two NYPD officers were shot while trying to stop a robbery in the Bronx late Monday in the latest case of the nation’s largest police force coming under fire on the street.
Both Andrew Dossi and Aliro Pellarano, who had just finished a plainclothes tour, were expected to survive. The men were clocking out when a report came in of a robbery at a Chinese restaurant at about 10:30, prompting them to join a response team. Although authorities said they did not appear to be targeted, as two police shot dead in their squad car in Brooklyn last month were, the incident was a sobering reminder of the dangers of policing and of the current tension between the force and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who praised them at a news conference at St. Barnabas Hospital, where they were being treated early Tuesday.
Thank God these officers are doing well," said de Blasio. "These officers did something that was extraordinarily brave. They did it as part of their commitment. These officers had just come off their shift and upon hearing this call went back out in search of these criminals. The work they do is so profoundly important in this instance where they went above and beyond the call to protect their fellow New Yorkers."
Police were hunting for the suspects, who fired on the officers as they fled the robbery scene on foot. Pellarano was hit in the arm and grazed in the chest, while Dossi was shot in the stomach and arm. The gunmen then exchanged fire with other responding officers before carjacking a white Chevrolet Camaro, according to the New York Post. They crashed the stolen car a few blocks from the scene and fled on foot. A source told the Post that a weapon was recovered near where the car crashed.
The Post reported that one possible suspect was apprehended at nearby New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he had sought treatment for a gunshot wound. It was not clear how he was shot.
New York Police Commissioner William Bratton described the suspects as two Hispanic men in their mid-to-late 20s. The organization COP SHOT, Citizens Outraged at Police Being Shot, has offered a $10,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.
The shooting comes one day after the funeral of NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu. Liu, along with his partner Rafael Ramos, was ambushed and murdered as he sat in his patrol car in Brooklyn Dec. 20. The shooter, a man who vowed online to kill "pigs," ran into a subway station where he shot himself to death.
