An NYPD cop was shot in the leg inside a Brooklyn apartment building following a heated standoff with an emotionally disturbed gunman who was killed in the exchange of gunfire Friday, police said.
The shooting occurred inside the gunman’s home Kosciuszko St. near Marcy Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant as an elderly couple cowered in an upstairs apartment just steps from the firefight.
A round fired during the exchange struck NYPD Emergency Services Unit Detective Matthew Gale in the left leg, fracturing his tibia, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
Both Tisch and Mayor Mamdani visited Gale in the hospital on Friday.
“We just visited with Det. Gale and we are grateful to report that he’s in good spirits and we’re praying for a speedy recovery,” Tisch said.
The gunman, Lamin Simmons, 48, died at Woodhull Hospital Center. He fired off more than 20 rounds before cops shot him, police said.
Cops raced to Kosciuszko St. at about 5:45 a.m. after neighbors reported hearing Simmons firing off seven rounds inside his two-story brownstone.
Neighbors said Simmons and his family had lived on the block for more than three decades
Responding cops entered the building and were immediately confronted by Simmons, who had a gun in his hand, Tisch said.
Cops retreated outside and tried to get Simmons to surrender, but he refused, cops and witnesses said.
“(The NYPD) closed the block off as the police went to the front,” longtime neighbor Marino Lucon, 61, told the Daily News. “They said ‘Surrender!’ but he said “I have a gun with me. If somebody comes inside, I’m going to shoot them!’”
NYPD
Police recovered these two weapons at the scene. (NYPD)
As the standoff began, Simmons’ wife and son were able to get out of the home safely, Tisch said. But an elderly couple in a second floor apartment, however, were unable to leave.
“We got in touch with the elderly couple and instructed them to lock themselves in their bedroom,” Tisch said. “For more than two hours, both hostage negotiators and the family made multiple attempts to establish a dialogue with the perpetrator.”
Simmons has no criminal record. His family admitted that the gunman had a history of mental illness, although police had never been called to the home to handle any emotional outbursts, Tisch said.
Neighbor Myriam Perez was inside her home when the standoff began.
“I went to open the window for my cat when I see a whole bunch of officers and trucks and all that,” Perez, 65, told The News. “I didn’t hear anything earlier, but my friend said she heard a screeching and shots.”
As the standoff wore on, Perez saw heavy weapons teams surround the building and take sniper positions.
“There was a police officer on top of the roof with a rifle,” she said.
Neither the cops nor the family were ever able to make contact with Simmons who was seen throwing a microwave, a lamp and several pots and pans out a rear window into the back yard.
Images from a NYPD drone in the rear yard recorded images of Simmons “clearly holding a handgun in his left hand,” Tisch said.
“He also continued to fire rounds from inside the apartment,” she said.
As members of the NYPD Emergency Services Unit breached the door at about 8:50 a.m., they found Simmons at the top of the stairs, just a few steps from the elderly couple’s apartment.
“Officers told him multiple times to drop the weapon, but he refused,” Tisch said. “He (then) fired at our officers, striking one officer in the leg. Four officers returned fire, striking him.”
A woman at a nearby store heard the rapports of gunfire and immediately froze.
“It was like two spurts of shots about 30 seconds apart,” said the woman, who wished not to be named. “I waited a couple of minutes and then I came out and I saw all the cops in the military gear and the drones out.”
“It was crazy,” she said. “Like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
Perez saw ESU officers bring out Det. Gale, who was bleeding from his leg.
“He was lying down on the sidewalk, then he was sitting down, so I knew he hadn’t been shot in the chest,” said Perez, who has been living on the block since 1974. “They put him in an ambulance.”
Cops were performing CPR on Simmons as they also rushed him to a second ambulance.
“He didn’t look too good,” she said.
Cops recovered two handguns, a Beretta and a .380-caliber pistol, from inside the home. It wasn’t immediately clear which one was used in the shooting.
Tisch said Simmons was arguing with the elderly couple upstairs when he began randomly firing off a gun inside his own home.
A third person at the scene suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
Gale is a 15-year veteran of the department. He joined the NYPD’s Emergency Services Squad 10 in 2017, according to his NYPD profile.
“(ESU) responds to some of the most complex and dangerous assignments in the city,” Tisch said. “When you need help, you call the police. When the police need help we call ESU.”
Mayor Mamdani thanked all of the officers involved in the standoff for “responding to an immensely challenging situation with professionalism and calmness.”
“What this officer from ESU did this morning is what so many officers do each morning,” Mamdani said. “He put on his uniform, left his house said goodbye to family and he went to his job to keep our city safe.”
“When New Yorkers call 911 they expect someone to show up. What this officer and so many others did today was exactly that,” he said.
