NEW YORK - A sudden blast of gunfire wounded two policemen, one critically, when they stopped a stolen SUV early Monday in Brooklyn, authorities said.
As police mounted an intense manhunt for the vehicle's occupants, doctors fought to save the life of Officer Russel Timoshenko.
His partner, Herman Yan, was in stable condition with wounds to the chest and forearm - saved, police said, by his bullet-resistant vest.
“One will recover and one is clinging to life,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a hospital news conference. “Every one of us should be grateful for their sacrifice, and I ask all New Yorkers to pray for their recovery.”
Investigators were studying a series of images from storefront security cameras in the Crown Heights neighborhood.
One captured the shooting; another showed three men, believed to be the driver and two passengers of the black BMW sport utility vehicle, ducking into a driveway next to a building after they ditched the stolen vehicle a few blocks from the shooting.
Three weapons - a .45-caliber handgun, a 9mm pistol and a Tech-9 automatic pistol - were discovered behind the building. The security tapes were too grainy to provide a detailed description of the men, police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly asked the public to provide any information that might lead “to the arrest of those responsible for this awful attack.”
At the crime scene Monday morning, the officers' patrol car - lights still flashing - remained in the spot where they stopped the suspects, outside the Little Red Riding Hood day care center. Numbered evidence markers covered the street and sidewalk near the car; one marked Yan's weapon.
The incident occurred at 2:30 a.m. after the two officers used a laptop computer in their marked patrol car to do a random check of the license plates on the BMW. After discovering the plates belonged to another car, they turned on their flashing lights and pulled the car over.
As the uniformed officers followed procedure by approaching from either side of the SUV, investigators believe two men opened fire without warning, hitting Timoshenko first, Kelly said.
“Seeing his partner fall to the ground and hearing shots, Officer Yan returned fire, but he too was hit with gunfire,” the commissioner said.
Detectives who were canvassing the area while investigating an unrelated double homicide heard the shots and stopped to help the officers. Other police cars arrived moments later and rushed the victims to the hospital.
One resident said she was awakened by the blasts.
“I heard, ‘Pow! Pow! Pow!' and I said to myself some poor child got killed,” said Sandra Frederick.
Investigators later determined that the SUV, and the plates from the second vehicle, had been stolen from a car dealership, Five Towns Mitsubishi in Inwood, N.Y., on Long Island near the Queens border.
Inside it were two .45-caliber shell casings and trash from a recent meal of fried chicken from a fast-food restaurant, police said.
Police said Timoshenko, of Staten Island, joined the department in January 2006.
Yan, of Brooklyn, joined three years ago.
At the hospital, Timoshenko's parents met with Bloomberg, who tried to console them.
“I can give them the thanks of a grateful city, but as a parent I can't come close to understanding their feelings,” the mayor said.
His partner, Herman Yan, was in stable condition with wounds to the chest and forearm - saved, police said, by his bullet-resistant vest.
“One will recover and one is clinging to life,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a hospital news conference. “Every one of us should be grateful for their sacrifice, and I ask all New Yorkers to pray for their recovery.”
Investigators were studying a series of images from storefront security cameras in the Crown Heights neighborhood.
One captured the shooting; another showed three men, believed to be the driver and two passengers of the black BMW sport utility vehicle, ducking into a driveway next to a building after they ditched the stolen vehicle a few blocks from the shooting.
Three weapons - a .45-caliber handgun, a 9mm pistol and a Tech-9 automatic pistol - were discovered behind the building. The security tapes were too grainy to provide a detailed description of the men, police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly asked the public to provide any information that might lead “to the arrest of those responsible for this awful attack.”
At the crime scene Monday morning, the officers' patrol car - lights still flashing - remained in the spot where they stopped the suspects, outside the Little Red Riding Hood day care center. Numbered evidence markers covered the street and sidewalk near the car; one marked Yan's weapon.
The incident occurred at 2:30 a.m. after the two officers used a laptop computer in their marked patrol car to do a random check of the license plates on the BMW. After discovering the plates belonged to another car, they turned on their flashing lights and pulled the car over.
As the uniformed officers followed procedure by approaching from either side of the SUV, investigators believe two men opened fire without warning, hitting Timoshenko first, Kelly said.
“Seeing his partner fall to the ground and hearing shots, Officer Yan returned fire, but he too was hit with gunfire,” the commissioner said.
Detectives who were canvassing the area while investigating an unrelated double homicide heard the shots and stopped to help the officers. Other police cars arrived moments later and rushed the victims to the hospital.
One resident said she was awakened by the blasts.
“I heard, ‘Pow! Pow! Pow!' and I said to myself some poor child got killed,” said Sandra Frederick.
Investigators later determined that the SUV, and the plates from the second vehicle, had been stolen from a car dealership, Five Towns Mitsubishi in Inwood, N.Y., on Long Island near the Queens border.
Inside it were two .45-caliber shell casings and trash from a recent meal of fried chicken from a fast-food restaurant, police said.
Police said Timoshenko, of Staten Island, joined the department in January 2006.
Yan, of Brooklyn, joined three years ago.
At the hospital, Timoshenko's parents met with Bloomberg, who tried to console them.
“I can give them the thanks of a grateful city, but as a parent I can't come close to understanding their feelings,” the mayor said.
