Cops shot in Bronx ID’d in reports as Diara Cruz, Patrick Espeut

One of two NYPD officers shot Thursday in the Bronx is recovering at home tonight.

Investigators said the officers were on the sixth floor of an apartment building in the Melrose Houses complex when they encountered two people in a stairwell. One of individuals pulled out a gun and started shooting before fleeing into an apartment on the seventh floor.

“I just shot a policewoman”.

Police say the man who shot them later killed himself.

Police said about an hour after the shooting that the officers’ conditions were “not life-threatening at this time”.

The person who was with Chavis was taken into custody, and several others were taken in for questioning.

Liang, as well as Espeut and Cruz, are part of a city program that assigns officers, many of them rookies, to so-called “vertical patrols” of stairwells in high-crime public housing.

The wounded officers, identified as Patrick Espeut, 29, and Diara Cruz, 24, were being treated at a local hospital and are in good condition, authorities said.

The officers were expected to survive.

NYPD didn’t identify the officers, who each have been on the force for two years.

The housing development is located in the 40th Precinct, where Officer Sherrod Stuart was shot in the ankle by friendly fire during a shootout on January 9.

Both officers were taken to Lincoln hospital where they were in surgery Thursday night.

The shooting happened Thursday at the Melrose Houses complex in the Bronx, a few miles from where the mayor was delivering his State of the City address. De Blasio was was told about the shooting as he finished his speech and left the stage.

“I am satisfied to say that both officers have been ready and imparting, so we are appealing to God for the best here”, Mayor de Blasio said around 10 p.m. amid a public interview at the healing facility.

De Blasio called the officers courageous.

“The #NYPD truly are New York’s finest, and I join all New Yorkers in praying for their recovery”.

A companion who knew Chavis’ family from when they lived in the West Farms segment of the Bronx said she was staggered by the shooter’s ridiculous fight with cops. I am so sorry. Your love is person is and will always be POWER.

Sources told the NY Times that the officers shot back, one of them once and the other twice, although this information was not confirmed by the NYPD.