Police opened fire on a shooting suspect after a man was wounded by gunfire outside a convenience store in West Harlem Friday, cops said.
The violence erupted when the shooter walked up to a man sitting outside a minimart on W. 125th St. near Amsterdam Ave. and started firing at him around 6:20 p.m., striking him multiple times, according to NYPD Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards.
Two plainclothes officers who were driving west in an unmarked vehicle witnessed the shooting and leaped out of the car to chase the shooter on foot.
But as the shooter rounded the corner heading north onto Amsterdam Ave., a second gunman entered the intersection from the southwest corner of W. 125th St. and Amsterdam Ave. and shot at the fleeing suspect.
One of the officers also fired on the suspect, who was struck once in the stomach. It’s unclear whether he was wounded by police or the second gunman, Edwards said.
Several bullets whizzed past one of the cops as he pursued the shooter and struck an urgent care clinic behind him, Edwards said.
A witness told the Daily News he heard the shots ring out and looked over to see the cops apprehending the suspect.
“There were shots, lots of shots,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “The cops pull up and get out of the car, and then he was down. He was in the middle of the street, and they handcuffed him.”
Both the suspect and the shooting victim were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, where they are expected to survive.
A police source said the first gunman was targeting two rivals when he opened fire outside the convenience store. His weapon was recovered at the scene.
Edwards identified the suspected shooter as 32-year-old Randy Negron.
Negron is a convicted felon with 11 previous arrests. He was released on parole in 2025 after an attempted murder conviction from a June 2015 incident, in which he fired into a group of people just a few blocks away from where Friday’s shooting occurred, Edwards said
The second shooter in Friday’s incident is still being sought.
The officers who were involved in the shooting were not wearing body cameras because they were on break at the time, Edwards said.
“This incident demonstrates the dangers that members of the NYPD run toward every single day,” Edwards said. “They saw a shooting in broad daylight as people were getting off a bus and going home after a long week, and they did not hesitate to jump out of their vehicle to pursue this shooter and prevent more people from getting hurt.”
