Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.
By LUIS PEREZ
Newsday
A city police sergeant shot and wounded a New Jersey murder suspect whose disabled car was being towed from the Martin Luther King Expressway in Staten Island early yesterday, authorities said.
Donald Johnson’s gold Ford Contour was propped up behind a flatbed truck on a service road at Willow Road East and Forest Avenue, when two officers responding to the call of a disabled car approached at about 4:50 a.m, authorities said.
Johnson, 22, of Elizabeth, N.J., was sitting in the front passenger seat of the flatbed truck’s cabin when the officers approached him, according to a spokesman for the Staten Island district attorney.
Police said when he was asked to get out of the cabin, Johnson flashed a 9-mm gun. The sergeant, whose name was not released, fired one shot, hitting Johnson in the chest, officials said. Johnson was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital on Staten Island, where he was reported in stable condition.
Johnson, was charged with criminal possession of a loaded firearm, menacing and resisting arrest, police said. He was awaiting arraignment. William Smith, a spokesman for the Staten Island district attorney, said he was wanted on a warrant in Plainfield, N.J., regarding a March drive-by shooting. Johnson also has a 2003 conviction for drugs, Smith said.