This is a developing story that bears watching:
Two plainclothes New York City police officers were shot in the Bronx on Monday night while they were investigating an armed robbery at a grocery store, the police said.
One officer, Andrew Dossi, 30, was shot in the lower back and arm, and was in critical but stable condition early Tuesday, the police said. The other officer, Aliro Pellerano, 38, was shot in the chest and arm was in stable condition.
At a news conference at St. Barnabas Hospital early Tuesday, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said the police were searching for two suspects. Later, around 4:45 a.m., the police released a video showing the suspect who they said fired at the officers.
Here’s where you can stop holding your breath:
After the shootings on Monday night, Deputy Chief Kim Y. Royster made it clear that the officers had not been initially targeted by the gunman — as occurred in the Dec. 20 fatal shooting of two officers in their patrol car in Brooklyn — but were instead investigating a robbery when the shooting began.
And then there’s this:
The two suspects were described as Hispanic men, 25 to 30 years old. One man has a close cropped beard, and one may be wounded. The suspect’s gun was a Ruger Blackhawk with a 7.5-inch barrel, Chief Boyce said. “It looks like the gun at the bodega right now, but we’re not 100 percent,” he said, referring to the earlier robbery. He also said that the officers had their shields out, and that the gunman knew they were police officers when he fired.
Let’s hope the officers recover, and the suspects are captured. But Lord only knows if or how this will affect the semi-revolt of police officers in New York.
