Police investigate the scene where a police officer and a domestic violence suspect exchanged fire at a home on Staten Island early Monday morning. (Danny Iudici for New York Daily News)
A tense confrontation between cops and a domestic violence suspect in Staten Island late Sunday ended with an officer wounded by a police bullet and the suspect dead, authorities said.
Two cops from the 120th Precinct responded to 30 Bridge Court, in a cul-de-sac off Lyman Ave. in Fort Wadsworth, just before 9:55 p.m., police sources said.
When they arrived at a home there, they found an intoxicated man armed with a knife that had a 10-inch blade, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea.
Both officers had their body cameras turned on, Shea told reporters early Monday.
“You can see the male attempting to get past who we believe was his wife, and coming at the officers,” Shea said.
“We hear multiple times, ‘Shoot me, shoot me, shoot me’ during this encounter.”
One of the officers fired at the man with a Taser. “We believe it struck the individual,” Shea said. “Unfortunately it did not cause him to cease his attack.”
The cops then fired on the man “up to 10 to 12 times,” hitting him with “multiple” bullets, Shea said.
“Also, with this exchange of gunfire, we had one officer who was struck,” the chief of detectives said.
The officer was hit once in the stomach, said a police source.
The wounded cop was rushed to Staten Island University Hospital North, where he was in critical but stable condition early Monday. He is expected to make a full recovery, officials said.
Police removed a distraught-looking woman from the scene.
“I heard five to six shots,” said Mark Weisberg, 40, a car sales manager who lives nearby. “Then I heard more, like return fire."
"I was upstairs in bed and all I heard was the gunshots," said a woman who lives on Bridge Court, two doors away from the shooting.
She didn’t hear any shouting, she said, because her TV was on.
"I was watching TV upstairs and my husband was watching TV downstairs and we heard the shots and turned the TVs off," she said. “We took cover. We didn’t go by the windows."
Police Commissioner James O’Neill said the shooting happened in “very tight quarters,” and unfolded quickly.
“We are reminded once again of the dangers our officers face every day as they work to keep New York City safe,” O'Neill said.