By Rocco Parascandola, John Annese, Julian Roberts-Grmela, Roni Jacobson
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — An NYPD detective was shot in his bulletproof vest and wounded after an 18-year-old gunman walked up to his unmarked police car in Brooklyn early Sunday, police said.
Det. Robert Karroll, a 20-year NYPD veteran, was shot near Nostrand Ave. and St. John’s Place in Crown Heights about 4:10 a.m., NYPD officials said.
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“I am grateful to report that he is expected to make a full recovery,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference. “His ballistic vest performed exactly as it was designed. And today that vest saved his life.”
Tisch said investigators are still piecing together what happened and that the shooting was not captured on police body-worn cameras.
The shooter was spotted on a surveillance camera about five minutes earlier, gun in hand, she said.
Karroll, who’s normally assigned to the NYPD Sex Offender Monitoring Unit, and his fellow officers were working on a Fourth of July detail aimed at reducing crew violence in the area when the teen approached their vehicle.
“Given the lack of body-worn camera in this incident, the circumstances of the approach are still unclear. But we can say that officers exited their vehicle and attempted to engage the armed individual,” Tisch said.
“There is also ballistic damage to the department vehicle the officers were sitting in, including bullet holes in the front and rear windshields and the passenger side of the car.”
Karroll was hit in the back of his vest, while a second officer suffered bruising to her face and shoulder during the confrontation, Tisch said. Medics took both to Kings County Hospital.
Three cops opened fire but didn’t hit the teen. Cops on foot chased the teen down, using a Taser to subdue him near Rogers Ave. and Union St. , Tisch said.
Police have taken the teen into custody and recovered a 9-mm firearm from him, Tisch said. Charges against him are pending.
“I want to take this moment to express my gratitude that this incident did not hold more grave consequences — and to Det. Karroll, and to every officer who has been safeguarding our city over what has been a busy holiday weekend,” said Mayor Mamdani, who described Karrol as a husband and a father of three children. “Det. Karroll, and so many others, have been working 12-hour shifts since yesterday afternoon, protecting New Yorkers on the Fourth of July.”
Surveillance video reviewed by the Daily News appears to show the suspect walking south on Nostrand Ave. and stopping next to a black SUV parked by the intersection. He appears to briefly converse with someone inside, then casually walks around the vehicle and enters the crosswalk, letting two cars pass before breaking into a sprint halfway across the street and running west on St. John’s Place, off screen. Two police officers then exit the vehicle and take cover as bullets appear to hit the pavement.
A man from the neighborhood who asked not to be named said he saw the suspect running while waiting for the bus one block west, near St. John’s Place and Rogers Ave.
“When he ran from here and ran up Rogers, I’m sitting at the bus stop. I heard the gunshots,” the man said. “I saw him go by. I was like, damn, he moving.”
“Then I heard ‘scrr,’ ” the man said, making a sound like tires screeching. “The cops pulled up, stopped. An officer hopped out, detective. He told him, ‘stop running! You better stop running!’ But the officer wasn’t moving. He just was telling him to stop, and the dude is running with the gun in his hand, booking it. The officer chases him,” he continued.
The shooting came nine years to the day after a crazed gunman with anti-cop sentiments shot to death NYPD Det. Miostosis Familia, a 12-year veteran, as she sat in a mobile command center on a Bronx block known for a spate of violence.
“This has to stop. Our members are out there day and night, hours and hours, protecting the people of the city of New York , doing a job, a job that they took an oath to take, and they need to be respected,” said Detectives’ Endowment Association President Scott Munro.
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