By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Dramatic video released by the NYPD Tuesday shows a Bronx cop exchanging fire with a gunman from no more than three feet away.
Officer Lewellyn Alvarez somehow avoided getting struck in the May 19 incident. Suspect Calvin Peterkin, 39, got away despite three gunshot wounds.
Peterkin, who has served state prison time for robbery, was later nabbed and charged with attempted murder, gun possession and menacing.
Alvarez and his partner, Officer Imran Alli, both in uniform, confronted Peterkin after someone called 911 to report a man with a gun inside a Boost Mobile store on E. 174th St. and Vyse Ave. in Morrisania, police said Tuesday
Video from inside the shop shows Peterkin minutes earlier threatening an employee with a gun, with the employee trying to calm him down.
When the cops arrived Peterkin came to the store entranceway asking what he had done. The interaction was captured on the officers’ body-worn cameras.
“I didn’t even do nothing,” Peterkin said, running past Alli, darting across the street and disappearing behind a parked Mr. Softee truck with its instantly recognizable tune playing.
As Alli gave chase, Alvarez ran to the front of the truck, cutting off the gunman.
“Put it down!” Alvarez yelled at Peterkin. “Put it down!”
Instead, police said, Peterkin fired twice at Alvarez from his 9mm gun.
Alvarez, no more than three feet away at that point, fired five times at the shooter, police said.
Alli fired three times from what appeared to be at least 50 feet away. A woman was to his left and a man to his right, but they were not in the line of fire.
Every second, every minute, every day, our officers answer any call, not knowing what dangers they will face. Watch, as @NYPD42Pct cops encounter a man with a gun during a 9-1-1 call on May 19.
⬇️⬇️⬇️https://t.co/rfyeKKCrk8 pic.twitter.com/ToHBjKlo8T— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) August 17, 2021
Peterkin got away, running down Vyse Ave. and ditching his gun under a parked vehicle, cops said.
He was arrested five days later and taken to BronxCare Health System for treatment for his gunshot wounds. He was shot in the left arm and right hand, police said, and was grazed in the chest.
The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is conducting a probe of the shooting.
©2021 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.