The Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - A city police officer had surgery to remove a bullet that may have been fired by his partner, and doctors and colleagues were optimistic he would survive.
Officer William McGarry, 49, remained in critical but stable condition late Monday at Broward General Medical Center.
“He is going to make it,” police spokesman Sgt. Alfred Lewers Jr. said.
The 22-year veteran was shot when he and Officer Stevens Gelu responded to John Yanosik’s apartment Sunday. Yanosik allegedly made drunken threats and used racial slurs from his balcony, prompting a 911 call.
Yanosik, 46, posted $5,000 bond Monday and was released on a charge of aggravated assault. His only comment to reporters after being released was: “Talk to the police.”
Police said Yanosik answered the door when McGarry, weeks away from retirement, and Gelu, a two-year veteran, arrived. Police said Yanosik had a gun and pointed it at Gelu, who aimed for Yanosik but may have shot McGarry.
Lewers would not say when ballistic test results to determine whose gun the bullet came from would be available. Investigators had not interviewed Gelu about the shooting Monday.
McGarry and Gelu did not know Yanosik pleaded guilty to battery against a Fort Lauderdale officer in 1989, Lewers said.
Other officers already had responded to a domestic disturbance call Saturday involving Yanosik, Lewers said. The first call came from a nurse at Broward House, an assisted-living facility a block from Yanosik’s apartment.
“He was threatening everybody, saying, ‘I’m gonna kill you. You people need to die,”’ said resident Angela Crawley, 36. “He was definitely drunk.”
Yanosik left before police arrived the first time.