Off-Duty Cop Shot During Botched Carjacking in Rockaways Tuesday: NYPD

An off-duty NYPD officer was shot during an attempted carjacking at the Rockaway Peninsula in south Queens Tuesday (Photo via Citizen).

Feb. 2, 2022 By Michael Dorgan

An off-duty NYPD cop was shot during an attempted carjacking on the Rockaway Peninsula in south Queens Tuesday night.

The officer, 22, was targeted by two suspects while he was stopped at a traffic light at Beach 62nd Street and Beach Channel Drive in Arverne at around 10:20 p.m., police said. The officer was driving to work in Brooklyn.

The suspects approached his vehicle on foot before one of the perpetrators tapped on the driver’s side window of the car with a gun, police said.

The rookie cop got out of the car and one of the suspects then fired several shots at the officer – striking him in the shoulder. The officer returned fire but did not hit either of the suspects, NYPD police chief Kenneth Corey said at a press briefing early Wednesday, accompanied by Mayor Eric Adams.

The would-be robbers, Corey said, then fled on foot. Meanwhile uniformed officers located nearby heard the sound of gunfire and rushed to the scene to aid the wounded cop.

The responding officers, according to Corey, broadcast a description of the fleeing suspects over their police radios and uniformed Public Safety Team officers spotted the two suspects about three blocks away near Beach Channel Drive and Beach 59th Street.

As those officers attempted to get out of their unmarked car, one of the suspects fired a shot towards them which struck the rear bumper of their vehicle.

The officers did not return fire and chased the suspects on foot before apprehending them a short distance away without further incident. They recovered a firearm, Corey said.

One of the suspects fired at the uniformed Public Safety Team officers, striking the bumper of their unmarked car (L). A firearm recovered from the scene (R) (Photos: NYPD)

The wounded off-duty cop was transported by the initial responding officers to Jamaica Hospital where he is listed as being in a stable condition, police said.

Mayor Adams condemned the attack on the off-duty officer and the subsequent shot fired at the uniformed officers. He said that the suspects showed no respect for cops or the public at large and that this type of violence is becoming too frequent.

“It sent a message that they had no regard of who they were trying to kill,” Adams said.

“The conversation we have been having over and over again, over-proliferation of guns, ready to use them on individuals in blue uniforms or blue jeans. They don’t care,” Adams said.

“To see something like this happen repeatedly in our city is unacceptable.”

Adams said the officers who apprehended the alleged perpetrators showed a great level of restraint, given that they did not return fire when shot at.

The off-duty officer is the sixth member of the NYPD to be shot so far in 2022 and comes as Police Officer Wilbert Mora – who was fatally shot during a domestic disturbance call in Harlem last month – is being buried today.

Adams said he will lay out clear items New York City needs to combat gun violence when President Joe Biden visits the city Thursday.

“Everyone must be on the same team,” Adams said.

Watch as @nypdpc joins @nycmayor and police executives to provide details on the NYPD officer shot in Queens. https://t.co/vC1OF2qyPd

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) February 2, 2022