NYPD cops allegedly shot by migrant are given ‘guard of honor’ after leaving hospital
The two cops allegedly shot by a Venezuelan migrant were given a “guard of honor” as they exited a Queens hospital Monday — with one of the hurt Finest touchingly pushing the wheelchair of his more badly wounded partner.
Officers Christopher Abreu and Richard Yarusso, both 26, were greeted with applause from lines of cops and other supporters as the heroes emerged from Elmhurst General Hospital — just hours after the violent ordeal.
Abreu, who took a bullet to the leg, was escorted from the hospital in a wheelchair pushed by Yarusso, whose bullet-proof vest protected him from a bullet to his chest.
The two cops were both congratulated by NYPD officials before being whisked away in police vans.
The pair were injured when they tried to stop suspect Bernardo Castro Mata, 19, after spotting him driving the wrong way down a street at 89th Street and 23rd Avenue in Elmhurst, Queens, at about 1:40 a.m., police said.
The suspect quickly ditched the moped and fled on foot for several blocks, according to cops.
He was eventually tackled by the officers and shot Yarusso during a struggle over the weapon, law-enforcement sources said. He then fired at Abreu, who shot back and hit Mata in the right ankle, police said.
In the immediate aftermath, Yarusso “was more concerned about his partner” and frantically worked to apply a tourniquet to Abreu’s leg to stem the bleeding, Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said.
Meanwhile, the teen suspect was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens to undergo surgery.
Mata, who has no prior arrests to his name in New York, is a suspect in several “snatch and grab” robbery investigations in Queens — including one in which a woman was allegedly attacked and had her credit cards stolen, according to cops.
He illegally entered the US through Eagle Pass, Texas, in July last year and had been staying at the migrant shelter in the former Courtyard Marriott Hotel near LaGuardia Airport, sources and cops said.
