Police officials said an off-duty officer was shot Saturday evening in the foot in Harlem, becoming the seventh officer shot in just over five weeks.
An off-duty NYPD officer was shot in the foot in Harlem Saturday evening, and police officials said the department was looking for two suspects wanted in connection to the shooting.
The shooting took place in the vicinity of West 126th Street and Broadway around 4:30 p.m., police confirmed. The officer is in "good spirits" and stable at the hospital, his doctor said Saturday night.
The off-duty officer was departing from a community vigil held at the Manhattanville Houses when "he saw two individuals begin to fire rounds from a gun," Chief of Housing Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press conference from Mount Sinai Hospital.
Police had not yet identified the two suspects as of the evening briefing, but investigators believe the shooting stemmed from a dispute observed at the complex hours earlier.
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Maddrey said the men fled the area as the off-duty officer left the community center at the housing complex. The cop met responding officers and helped provide a description of the suspects when he "realized he was shot in the foot," the police chief said.
"I'm just making a plea to all of our communities, all of our citizens, our police, we all need to support one another. We have to stop the scourge of gun violence. We shouldn't have to live like this. We're not supposed to live like this," Maddrey said.
The officer is the seventh shot in New York City in 36 days, and comes just four days after another off-duty officer was shot in Queens while driving his personal vehicle to work.
The officer was stopped at a traffic light when the suspects allegedly walked up to his vehicle and knocked on the window with a gun. When he got out of the car, the suspects allegedly opened fire, striking him in the shoulder, before taking off.
Tuesday's shooting came as New York police prepared to pay tribute to one of two young officers killed by gunfire while answering a call for help on Jan. 22 in Harlem. Detective Wilbert Mora’s funeral was held Wednesday morning. Jason Rivera was eulogized and posthumously promoted to detective the week before.
At a press conference following the sixth officer's shooting, Mayor Eric Adams called out politicians who he claimed are getting in the way of policing efforts that would reduce the number of guns on the streets.
"A numerical minority is standing in the way of making smart decisions to not only rid ourselves of those who are shooters, but also the guns on our streets. The NYPD is doing their job, 6,000 guns removed from the streets last year, close to 400 since I've been in office," Adams said. "We continue to state it's time for us to get the help we need...we're going to do our job but we can only make our city safe if we get the help we need and deserve."
Three of the six shootings this year happened in Harlem, and one each in the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.
Thirty police officers were shot across the country in January, that's according to the National Fraternal Order of Police. Five of those officers died.
