NYPD Officer Shot in Bronx; Suspect Shot in Head – NBC New York
An NYPD officer was shot after chasing after a man with a gun in the Bronx Tuesday night, according to police.
Two anti-crime officers, both members of the department’s new public safety teams, were patrolling in uniform and in an unmarked police vehicle around 10:45 p.m., according to police. The cops saw a man just south of Third Avenue and Claremont Parkway in the Claremont section, and went to approach him when he took off on foot.
The officers ran after him, heading west before going up Bathgate Avenue during their block-and-a-half chase. That’s when the man turned toward them and fired two shots, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said at a press conference early Wednesday morning. One officer was struck in the left arm.
The officers returned fire, striking the suspect in the head, according to police sources. He was listed in critical condition at St. Barnabas Hospital, police said.
The officer was taken to Lincoln Hospital after getting struck in the arm, according to police. The officer’s condition was described as stable, and is expected to make a full recovery.
A 9-mm Glock handgun was recovered at the scene. Essig said that the firearm was stolen from Richmond, Virginia, in June 2021.
The suspect was identified as 25-year-old Rameek Smith, according to police. He is believed to have lived in a homeless shelter on Staten Island, but had family members with addresses nearby in the Bronx.
Essig said that Smith has multiple previous arrests, including one for robbery on Staten Island in July 2016. Smith pleaded guilty, and received five years probation.
During that time on probation, Smith was again locked up for criminal possession of a weapon after he was found with a gun while evading paying subway fare at a Coney Island subway stop in March 2020. Police who were questioning him at the time found a 32-caliber handgun on him, according to Essig.
Rameek Smith, 25, is the suspect believed to have shot an NYPD officer in the arm Tuesday night. Smith was shot in the head.
That case is still open, police said, after Smith pleaded guilty in Dec. 2021 and was released on his own recognizance. He is awaiting sentencing, and is next scheduled to appear in court in June.
Attorney information for Smith was not immediately available.
“This is what we’re dealing with — a perpetrator with multiple arrests. The last arrest: criminal possession of a weapon. How was he found to have been carrying the weapon? Jumped the turnstile at the subway station, and had the weapon on him,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams at the press conference. “People want to ask why am I cracking down on fare evasions? That’s why.”
The shooting came ahead of an announcement by Adams and NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell scheduled for Wednesday afternoon about public safety in the city.
“Our city is divided. The overwhelming number of New Yorkers are the good guys. A small number of violent people are the bad guys,” Adams said.
He added that the officer who was shot, as well as that officer’s father-in-law, are both on the neighborhood safety teams, which target illegal guns.
“You have family members in the…
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