BY BILL MASON
Newsday
BROOKLYN, N.Y. - A man has been charged with wounding a police officer who confronted him about smoking marijuana outside a Brooklyn beauty parlor, authorities said.
Officer Rory Mangra was hit in his right ankle around 7:15 p.m. Tuesday in Park Slope. He was listed in stable condition at New York Methodist Hospital.
The suspect, Kingsley Newland, 34, was charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of marijuana, police said.
Police said Newlan, of 88 South 10th St., Brooklyn, pulled a handgun from his waistband during a struggle with a police officer and shot the officer in the ankle Tuesday night in Park Slope.
The wounding of Mangra is the most recent attack on an officer in New York City.
“Here we are again -- another night, another hospital,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, joined by police Commissioner Ray Kelly at a news conference at the hospital where the injured officer was recovering.
Kelly said Newland had a criminal record and is a suspected member of the Bloods street gang.
Officers Mangra and Erik Merizalde were on patrol in an unmarked police vehicle about 7 p.m. when they said they saw Newland smoking a marijuana cigarette in front of a beauty parlor on Dean Street, just west of Flatbush Avenue, police said.
As Mangra exited the vehicle, Newland fled on foot east on Dean toward Flatbush Avenue, police said. Mangra pursued on foot, while Merizalde drove to the Flatbush Avenue intersection to block his escape, police said.
While struggling with the officers, Newland produced a .22-caliber gun and shot Mangra in the right ankle, police said. The suspect was handcuffed and the gun recovered, police said.
The specific charges against Newland were pending, police said. A person who was with him ran away and was being sought, they said. A telephone number at his Brooklyn home was unlisted, and it was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
A day before the fatal shooting of two unarmed volunteer police officers, two officers were injured in separate incidents.
Transit Officer Angel Cruz suffered a pierced skull and a slashed face while issuing a summons to a man for smoking on a Brooklyn subway platform.
Officer Robert Tejada was shot in the abdomen and ankle during a gunfight in a Harlem restaurant in which a 25-year-old man was killed.
Both officers are recovering.
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.