The Associated Press
WATERTOWN, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities were searching in northern New York Wednesday for an off-duty police officer who wounded another man in an overnight shooting.
The search for Watertown Police Officer Michael Van Waldick was concentrated in the Adams area, where Van Waldick’s family lives and where he was last spotted.
Police said Van Waldick, 26, entered an apartment in the city around 1 a.m. and shot the man who lived there several times. The victim was in critical condition at Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown after undergoing surgery.
Authorities said Van Waldick then took with him as he fled a woman who was inside the apartment at the time of the shooting. She was later found unhurt in Adams, 70 miles north of Syracuse.
There was speculation the shooting involved a domestic dispute, but police could not say for certain and released no other details.
Van Waldick should be considered armed and dangerous, police said.