Were Responding to Domestic Violence Call
By Michael Weissenstein, The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Two veteran police detectives were shot dead in an exchange of gunfire with a man who had been menacing his mother inside her home, police said.
The detectives were responding to a domestic violence call Friday night in the borough of Brooklyn when both were shot in the chest.
The suspect, who was hit in both legs, carjacked a minivan and fled, police said. He was captured less than two hours later and hospitalized.
The detectives were not wearing bullet-resistant vests, which are mandatory for uniformed officers but not detectives, who wear street clothes. One was a 39-year-old married father; the other, a 22-year veteran, was 43.
The suspect, 29-year-old Marlon Legere, had a criminal history including arrests for alleged narcotics possession, grand larceny and assault but was not wanted for any major crimes. Police said it was not immediately clear why he had opened fire.
Police found one of the detectives’ guns behind the building where Legere was found but had not located a gun belonging to the suspect by early Saturday morning.
It was possible that Legere may have shot the detectives with one of their own guns, police said, although the circumstances of the killing remained murky.
“The two detectives have joined the ranks of our fallen heroes,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the hospital where the officers were pronounced dead.
The detectives were responding to a domestic violence call from Legere’s mother, police officials said.
They were the first New York City Police Department officers to be shot and killed in the line of duty since last March.
Ester Leta, 49, said she was walking to her mother’s home on the same block where Legere’s mother lived when she saw the officers bleeding in the street.
“One cop was already lying down with his eyes open,” she said. “The other was saying ‘call 911' on his phone. I was shocked but I walked toward them and I was going to pray for them. But the cops came down and said ‘back off.’ It’s sad really.”