The Associated Press
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) -- A city police officer was shot in the leg Tuesday night while on patrol in the city’s South End, authorities said.
The officer, Jessi Pizarro, was shot during a footchase and was brought to Bridgeport Hospital, where he was in fair condition, the Connecticut Post reported. His injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, police said.
Officers caught the suspect just before 10 p.m. on Park Avenue in the city’s South End, police said. He was taken to St. Vincent’s Medical Center for undisclosed injuries. Police did not release his name.
The incident started as a motor vehicle stop before the suspect fled on foot and gunfire erupted, police told the newspaper. Police dogs, state troopers and a state police helicopter responded to the scene.
At the scene of the capture, Police Chief Wilbur L. Chapman praised police for their work on the incident. Leaving the scene for the hospital, he said he would have no further comment “until I see how my cop is.”
Pizarro was one of the organizers of a benefit for four police officers with terminal cancer and the children of a sergeant who committed suicide in January.
He is the first city officer to be shot in the line of duty since Officer Hugh Tobin was wounded in the hip at the P.T. Barnum public housing complex on Oct. 8, 2003.