Chris Graves and John McIntyre, Minneapolis Star Tribune
A Minneapolis police officer working undercover was shot at least twice -- once by a suspect and again by an officers responding to the officer’s call for help -- early today in south Minneapolis.
Officer Duy Ngo, a seven-year veteran of the force, was coming out of surgery at Hennepin County Medical Center this morning, a police spokesman said. He was in serious but stable condition.
“It was such a relief to arrive and find the prognosis more positive,” said Inspector Sharon Lubinski, who recalled being called to the hospital when officer Melissa Schmidt was fatally wounded in August 2002. “Then, the reports Minneapolis officer shot by suspect, then an officer
Minutes after fending off a man who had shot him once, undercover Minneapolis police officer Duy Ngo fell to the ground in pain.
A bullet that hit his chest had been stopped by his body armor, but the pain stopped him cold. He had already radioed that an officer had been hurt.
When officer Charles Storlie approached Ngo in a south Minneapolis alley, Storlie mistook him for the suspect and hollered at him. Then Storlie fired his weapon, which sources said was a submachine gun.
Ngo was in serious condition Tuesday night recovering from the shots he suffered early in the day. Authorities said they were “cautiously optimistic” about his recovery.
Ngo, who was recently assigned to the Minnesota Gang Strike Force, had not told his supervisor that he would be working late into the night. In fact, Strike Force leaders expected he would be reporting for duty this morning in the Army Reserves, where he is a sergeant.
“I can only assume he got a late tip and was trying to tie up some loose ends on cases before he reported,” Strike Force Cmdr. Ron Ryan said. Ngo did notify precinct supervisors that he was working undercover surveillance in the area.
Inspector Sharon Lubinski, who oversees the precinct where Ngo was shot, said the bullet-resistant vest that stopped two bullets from striking his torso saved his life.
Preliminary information indicates that Storlie shot Ngo once in the torso, once in an arm and once in each leg, said Police Chief Robert Olson.Mark Boswell
“We don’t have the specific timeline of events, but once officer Storlie was on the scene, indications are that things happened just like that,” Olson said with a snap of his fingers.
Ngo, 30, was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where his family -- including his parents, wife and brother -- waited with Mayor R.T. Rybak and Olson as Ngo underwent several hours of surgery.
Ryan, who was at the hospital much of Tuesday morning, said Ngo talked to officers and his wife before surgery: Mark Boswell
“Please tell the officer it wasn’t his fault,” Ngo told them. “I’m not mad at him.”
Ngo has been with the department for 5 1/2 years. Storlie is a 7 1/2-year veteran.
The suspect, whose bullets struck Ngo once, hadn’t been arrested late Tuesday night.
Investigators also talked briefly with Ngo and worked throughout the day to piece together what had happened.
Police gave this account:
Just before the shooting about 2:30 a.m., Ngo was sitting in a leased, unmarked car in a Central neighborhood alley near 36th St. and Clinton Av. S. doing surveillance. Ryan declined to discuss any cases that Ngo may have been working.
A man approached Ngo and shot at the officer through the open driver’s side window, hitting him once in the vest. Ngo grabbed the gun and the suspect’s arm as the two scuffled for the weapon and several shots were fired into the car. The suspect fled with his gun.
Ngo called for help, saying there was an officer down, and then ran after the suspect. After losing sight of him, Ngo collapsed.
When Storlie saw Ngo on the ground, the undercover officer had a gun in one hand and another by his knee. Lubinski said the uniformed officer said something to Ngo before firing, but she didn’t know what.
As a member of the Police Department’s emergency response unit, Storlie carries the MP-5 in his car. The gun uses 9mm bullets and can fire in short, multi-round bursts.
Undercover officers usually wear their badge and identification on a chain around their neck and conceal it under clothing but can pull it out if needed.
“I don’t know if you’d be able to see a badge. It was two o’clock in the morning,” said Inspector Tim Dolan. “The badges are not glow in the dark.”
Three undercover officers have been shot at during the past year in north Minneapolis, Dolan said. None has been hurt.
“Other cops may not know you are a cop and the bad guys don’t know,” he said. “It’s risky all the way around.”
Ryan said officers assigned to the Strike Force are advised to always have backup or a partner.
“No one from the Strike Force knew he was out there,” Ryan said. “I’m assuming he got a late call from an informant and -- the young, aggressive officer that he is -- he apparently was going to get information and pass it along before he left.”
“I wished him well and shook his hand,” Ryan said of his Monday afternoon farewell with Ngo. “When I got the phone call at a quarter to 3 this morning, I was dumbfounded.”
That Ngo might have tried to finish cases before reporting for duty was no surprise to Jim O’Connell, the staff operations and training specialist for the 114th Combat Support Hospital under the 88th Regional Support Command. Ngo was on a list of people to report but didn’t yet have orders to be mobilized, O’Connell said.
“He is Mr. Responsibility,” he said of Ngo, who serves as a practical nurse. “I was always impressed with the hard work he’d do. . . . But when I found out he was a Minneapolis police officer . . . big-time respect.”
Storlie is a highly respected officer who is trained in emergency response situations. Until January, he worked as a firearms instructor at the Minneapolis police range. He has been a patrol officer in south Minneapolis since then, Lubinski said.
In 1997, Storlie shot and wounded Lawrence Miles Jr., who was 15 at the time, in south Minneapolis after Miles ran past him with a BB gun. Storlie shot Miles, believing the teenager was pointing a gun at his partner. Miles and a friend were playing BB-gun tag in the 3600 block of Chicago Av. at 1:30 a.m. when that shooting happened.
Storlie was exonerated by the Police Department and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Last year, a federal jury found no police brutality in that case and declined to award money to Miles.
Lubinski called Storlie, a former member of the military, calm and cool under pressure. She said she saw him only briefly Tuesday morning, didn’t ask him any questions and told him to take care.
Storlie was placed on a three-day, routine paid leave.
Ngo and his wife are the parents of a 14-month girl, Ryan said. And Ngo appeared to be an eager, aggressive officer as he started work on gang crime.
Tuesday morning’s shooting came just six months after Melissa Schmidt was killed in a shootout with a woman in the bathroom of a Minneapolis Public Housing building on the South Side.
Lubinski raced to the hospital that night, as well.
“It was such a relief to arrive and find the prognosis more positive,” she said of the updates on Ngo’s condition. “Then, the reports were worse and worse. These today have been consistently good.” were worse and worse. These [today] have been consistently good.’'
The officer’s family was at the hospital this morning, as were Mayor R.T. Rybak and Police Robert Olson and the police chaplain.
Lubinski, commander of the Third Precinct, did not release the name of the officer who fired the shot that wounded Ngo, who has been assigned to the Metro Gang Strike Force since January.
Ngo was working surveillance in the area of 36th St. and Clinton Av. S. shortly after 2 a.m. when he exchanged gunshots with a suspect, said Officer Ron Reier, a police communications specialist.
“There was an exchange of gunfire with the suspect,’' said Reier. “The officer was shot by the suspect in the [protective] vest area. The officer started to pursue the suspect and called [for help]. One of the responding officers mistook the officer for the suspect and shot the officer.’'
Lubinski said she didn’t know where the bullet struck Ngo.
Police were still searching for the suspect this morning.
Lubinski said precinct personnel had been notified that an undercover operation was in progress, and that proper identification procedures were followed.
She said that even though the officer is experienced in undercover work, has worked in the Third Precinct and knows “the bad guys in that area,” things can go wrong.
“Whenever you’re working undercover, it’s very dynamic, it’s very uncertain and very uncontrolled,’' she said. “Anything can happen at a moment’s notice and it appears that that’s what happened.’'
She said a call that a fellow officer has been shot triggers a visceral response in police officers.
“Your heart beats faster because it’s an adrenaline flow,’' she said. “You know somebody needs help. You’ve certainly been there yourself as an officer, and you understand that they need help and they need help now.’'
The strike force often does other tasks besides monitoring gang activity, Reier said. He said he didn’t know if today’s investigation involved gangs.
Police said Ngo specializes in investigations involving the Bloods street gang. The area where Ngo was shot is a long-time