Two NYPD Officers Shot, Alleged Gunman ‘Had More Than a Dozen’ Priors

Two New York police officers were shot on Thursday at a public housing project and are in stable condition, a police spokeswoman said.

The shooting occurred less than five miles from Lehman College, where Mayor Bill de Blasio was giving his annual State of the City address.

During the search, the officers encountered two men in a sixth-floor stairwell. Three shots were fired in return by the officers; the male officer who was injured fired two shots and a third officer fired once.

The suspect was identified by police as Malik Chavis, 23, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an apartment at a Bronx housing project Thursday night, officials said. The news outlet reports that Chavis had 17 prior arrests.

The incident coincides with the trial of New York Officer Peter Liang, who was charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man named Akai Gurley in a stairwell in a Brooklyn public housing project in 2014. Police said he apparently shot himself in the head with the same.32-caliber handgun he used to fire at the officers.

Mayor Bill de Blasio met with the officers’ families at the hospital, according to the Wall Street Journal.

De Blasio, a Democrat, was told about the shooting as he finished his speech and left the stage.

The officers were taken to Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx with non-life-threatening gunshot injuries, a spokesperson said. Espeut and another officer, Diara Cruz, were struck.

“The police are just doing their job and keeping us safe”, Guzman said.

The Journal News reported that Espeut was a technical sergeant in the 105th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard based at Stewart Airport in Newburgh. “This goes to show the dangers police officers face each and every day”.

Others were not as receptive to the outpouring of support for his loss, with one person writing on a relative’s Facebook page: “Is that the ***** that was killed because he shot two cops?” Prosecutors say Liang was reckless and shouldn’t have had his finger on the gun’s trigger.

The practice has come under fire since Gurley’s death by critics who say it violates privacy and puts officers and residents at undue risk.