Off-duty NYPD cop grazed by bullet fired by Queens carjackers; two men in custody
An off-duty NYPD cop was grazed by a bullet fired by a pair of carjackers in Queens early Sunday, police sources said.
Two suspects were later taken into custody.
The 25-year-old cop was confronted by two men on 43rd Ave. and 21st St. in Long Island City about 6:30 a.m., sources said. The officer was grazed in the leg and taken to an area hospital in stable condition, the sources said.
The off-duty officer was driving a neon green BMW and had pulled over to call for help just before he was shot, PIX11 News reported.
The attackers — both clad in black and wearing blue surgical masks — sped off in a gray Nissan sedan with West Virginia tags.
Police took two men into custody after they bailed out of the vehicle and took off running near 33rd Ave. and Union St. in Flushing, according to sources and radio transmissions.
Both men have rap sheets — with one man a convicted level-3 sex offender who served time in state prison for the 2015 rape of a victim under 15 years old, a source said. The same man also has a pending assault case in Manhattan for allegedly slashing someone in the face with a weapon on March 2 near the intersection of 125th St. and Lexington Ave., the source said
No charges were immediately filed as the investigation continues.
'Grateful that our police officer will be OK and suspects are already in custody. But this attack is yet another symptom of the message on our streets, which has emboldened criminals and put cops and all NYers at risk,' the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York wrote on X.
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