By Alan Feuer, The New York Times
A gunfight in an apartment building in the Bronx yesterday left a man dead and the detective who shot him to death wounded, the police said.
The detective, Romeo Baloy, 42, was driving on White Plains Road in the Wakefield section around 2:30 p.m. when he saw a gun in the back pocket or waistband of a man walking along the street, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said. Detective Baloy followed the man, identified as Gayle Duran, 19, inside the apartment building, and a gunfight ensued on a second-floor landing, the police said.
Detective Baloy, who was shot in the hand and thigh, was treated at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in the Bronx. He was taken to Bellevue Medical Center for reconstructive surgery on his hand last night, Mr. Kelly said.
Detective Baloy, an 18-year veteran of the force and a highly decorated officer, was on his way from a Bronx police station house to the Bronx Criminal Courthouse on 161st Street when he saw Mr. Duran outside an apartment building at 4727 White Plains Road, Mr. Kelly said. The detective got out of his car and followed Mr. Duran, who fled inside the four-story building, which has a liquor store on its ground floor, Mr. Kelly said.
Mr. Duran ran up two flights of stairs but stopped suddenly on the landing, Mr. Kelly said, then turned around and struck Detective Baloy on the head with a handgun. A gunfight broke out in which the detective was shot twice and Mr. Duran was shot several times, at least once in the face, Mr. Kelly said.
Mr. Duran occasionally stayed in the building, where a relative lives, Mr. Kelly said. Police officials would not say how Mr. Duran and the tenant were related.
Mr. Kelly said Mr. Duran had a criminal record, and was charged last year in an assault with a pipe.
Detective Baloy, Mr. Kelly said, has served in the 69th Precinct in Brooklyn, the Police Intelligence Division, the Brooklyn North Narcotics unit and the Organized Crime Control Bureau.
Throughout the afternoon, hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes officers converged on White Plains Road, which was closed by yellow police tape to traffic from 241st Street to 242nd Street. Two police helicopters whirred overhead as the police briefly - and they said mistakenly - searched for a second suspect in the shooting.
Detective Baloy, who was on duty at the time, had apparently not called for assistance before approaching Mr. Duran, Mr. Kelly said. Police officials said he was on his way to the courthouse, most likely to drop off papers in a pending case.
At Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, on 233rd Street and Carpenter Avenue, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spoke with Detective Baloy and his wife, then told reporters that the detective was conscious but under heavy sedation.
“He does understand he has an awful lot of friends,” Mr. Bloomberg said as scores of narcotics officers thronged the hospital halls and lobby.
Joe Hasselt, the owner of the building where the shooting took place, said undercover officers had approached him a week ago to say that guns were being illegally sold from his building. The undercover officers asked him if he would help them investigate the case and Mr. Hasselt said he gave them the keys to a vacant apartment in the building two days ago. Police officials confirmed the existence of the investigation but said it was unrelated to the shooting of Detective Baloy and the death of Mr. Duran.