Shot off-duty cop’s brother-in-law returned fire during botched NYC robbery: sources
New details emerged Sunday in the robbery that left an off-duty NYPD cop clinging to life, including how the victim’s relative pulled the ailing officer’s gun from his holster to return fire, police sources said.
Cops are still hunting the gunman, who critically wounded the officer in a Facebook Marketplace ambush in Brooklyn on Saturday evening — a horror caught on video, sources said.
The cop, a 26-year-old father of two, arrived at the East New York address with his brother-in-law around 7 p.m., hoping to buy a Honda Pilot that had been listed on the online site, sources said.
The pair, who had about $24,000 in cash on them, were lured down a dark driveway at 472 Ruby St. supposedly to check out the vehicle when the armed suspect announced the stick-up, snarling, “Give me your money,” police and sources said.
Investigators believe the same criminal was behind a similar incident on the same block Jan. 13.
The suspect then fired his 9mm handgun at least five times, hitting the officer once in the left side of his head, with the bullet exiting the back, sources said.
His brother-in-law responded by pulling the ailing Finest’s gun from his holster and shot at the crook at least six times, sources said.
It is unclear if the relative struck the suspect, who jumped into the driver’s seat of a waiting black BMW SUV and sped off, sources said.
Cops responding to 911 calls found the wounded officer — a five-year veteran of the force — lying on his back on the ground with his NYPD shield and service weapon nearby. His name is being withheld by The Post, pending official release.
The officer is now on life support at Brookdale Hospital, where dozens of relatives and members of New York’s Finest were gathered.
“Our prayers, of course, are to the officer and his family as he continues to fight for his life,” Gilford Monrose, a faith advisor to Mayor Eric Adams, said at a prayer vigil for the wounded cop at the hospital Sunday evening.
More than two dozen clergy members and faith leaders gathered to denounce the “senseless” gun violence that downed the Brooklyn cop.
“We want to make it very clear that this is not a mayor’s problem, this is a problem of crime,” Bishop Gerald Seabrooks, president of the United Clergy Coalition, said during the solemn gathering.
“We are asking parents to bring their children back to church so that we can once again practice morals and values,” Seabrooks said.
In the other recent Facebook Marketplace robbery, the victim showed up on the corner of Dumont Avenue and Ruby Street around 7:10 p.m. that Friday to make a purchase when the crook pulled a gun and demanded, “I know you brought money,” according to sources.
The robber made off with $18,000 in that case, the sources said.
“We will catch the person responsible for this act,” Adams told reporters at the hospital Saturday night, referring to Saturday’s tragedy. “An officer conducting a simple errand and a dangerous person pulled out a firearm.
“As we see so often in this city, too many illegal guns are in the hands of bad people and doing bad things,” the mayor said.
In addition to the Jan. 13 incident, two other Facebook Marketplace ambushes took place in the city last year, including the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old Rockland County man who responded to an ad for a motorcycle in the Bronx in May. The crimes are not believed to be linked to Saturday’s shooting.
In October, federal prosecutors announced that a pair of Bronx teenagers separately used the online ad ruse to lure victims into robberies and carjackings.
