LongIsland.com

Three NYPD Officers Expected to Recover After Two Separate Shootings

Written by Amy Gernon  |  04. January 2013

Three NYPD officers are recovering after two separate shootings, one in the Bronx, the other in Brooklyn, occurred within one hour on Thursday night, according to various reports.  

Around 6:30 p.m., off-duty officer Juan Pichardo was shot in the thigh by an armed man with a companion as he and another man attempted to tackle the shooter.  According to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, there were two other accomplices waiting outside the car dealership owned by Pichardo’s family in the Bronx here the shooting took place.  After ransacking the office the four men fled, but were apprehended only a short distance away.
 
The gun used in the shooting was stolen and brought across state lines from North Carolina.  Officer Pichardo later reported that he recognized the shooter as a member of a robbery gang.
 
Two other officers on patrol in Transit District 34 in Brooklyn were shot an hour later as they approached a suspect moving suspiciously between subway cars.  When the officers asked the man for identification, he pulled out a 9-mm handgun and shot officer Lukasz Kozicki, 32, was once in each thigh, and a third time in the groin.  Commissioner Kelly suggested that the gunman had seen the officers vest and was aiming his shots low to strike the officers.
 
Kozicki’s partner, Michael Levay, 27, was shot in the lower back, but was uninjured thanks to his bulletproof vest.  Levay returned fire and killed the suspect.  
 
The shootings come just a day after Mayor Bloomberg announced that 2012 was a record low year for murders and shootings.  
 
 
 
Share your thoughts on this article by posting a comment below or by visiting our Long Island Living discussion forum.

Copyright © 1996-2024 LongIsland.com & Long Island Media, Inc. All rights reserved.