By Rebecca White and Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — An NYPD cop was shot and wounded in the face early Monday by a gunman who had just murdered a Brooklyn neighbor, police said
Officers responding to a 5:57 a.m. 911 found 41-year-old Leroy Wallace dead from a gunshot wound to the chest on the sidewalk near Hegeman Ave. and Thomas S. Boyland St. in Brownsville, cops said. Wallace was shot inside his apartment building and then stumbled outside and collapsed.
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About two hours later, Officer Sharjeel Waris, 25, was guarding a shell casing marked as evidence in the building’s vestibule when the killer suddenly opened his first-floor apartment door and fired a shotgun at close range at the four-year NYPD veteran, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
Waris was shot in the left side of his face. His birdshot pellet wound was minor and he was released from Brookdale University Hospital about noon, wheeled out in a wheelchair to cheers from fellow officers, with his family by his side.
He is good spirits,” Tisch said.
“But make no mistake, this could have ended very differently. What happened this morning is a reminder of how quickly danger finds the men and women who protect this city. They stood their ground, they did their jobs and they kept people safe. And once again they reminded us all what it means to put on that uniform.”
Cops had earlier knocked on the gunman’s door and nobody answered, leading them to believe he was not home and had fled the scene.
Waris returned fire, hitting the gunman, who retreated back into his apartment and locked the door, officials said.
“I have been briefed on the NYPD officer who was shot in Brooklyn this morning,” Mayor Adams tweeted from Israel, where he is in the middle of a visit. “Praying for the officer’s recovery and we will continue to monitor the situation.”
Adams’ top deputy, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, visited the wounded cop and his family at Brookdale University Hospital before the officer’s release.
“Fortunately, he is doing well,” Mastro told reporters. “He has a loving and supportive family.”
Waris took the test to become an NYPD cop when he was just 19 and joined the force at age 21, Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association union said. “A job that he always wanted to do and he loves doing it and he’s going to continue to do it and do it well,” Hendry said.
Cops were not sure if the gunman had been struck in the shootout with Waris. They eventually broke a window to his apartment and sent a drone into the home, which transmitted video showing the gunman dead on the kitchen floor, his shotgun by his side.
While investigators first suspected he had killed himself, there were no shell casings found in the apartment and so police concluded he was killed by the shot fired by a wounded Waris.
Several people were brought out of the building by cops after the gunman was found dead, including a woman in handcuffs.
Wallace, who had no criminal history according to police sources, lived in the apartment adjacent to his killer’s home. The two-story brick building has just four apartments, two on each floor.
The building’s super said there were no sigs of trouble between the gunman and Wallace before the shock slaying.
“I don’t know if there was anything going on between them,” said the super, John Bell. “I’ve never seen them argue … It’s a shock … It’s terrible.”
The super said the gunman lived with his sister, moving in a few months ago after leaving his job with the Army. Two months ago, the gunman complained about a problem with the water and the super fixed it.
“He was polite … He seems like a quiet person,” the super said of the gunman. “If there was a problem, he would call me.”
Two officers racing to the scene got into a crash on New Lots Ave., Tisch said. They were taken to Brookdale University Hospital, along with the driver of the other vehicle. All three victims were in stable condition.
With Theodore Parisienne
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