A suspect was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after firing at NYPD officers who went to his Harlem apartment building to serve an arrest warrant for a domestic violence charge Wednesday, officials said.
The individual produced a gun and opened fire when warrant officers entered the fifth-floor apartment on West 147th Street in Harlem around 8:30 a.m. One officer returned fire as police retreated, according to Chief of Department Rodney Harrison.
No officers were hit by the suspect's bullets. It's not clear how many he fired in total. Harrison said the suspect may have also been a potential murder suspect in another case, though no details on that or the domestic violence case were immediately shared.
Hostage negotiators were called to the scene but the suspect didn't respond, Harrison said at a news briefing. They obtained a visual from within the apartment and saw him lying on the floor. They went in and saw him dead, shot in the head, two hours after the standoff began.
A woman — believed to be the suspect's girlfriend — who had been barricaded inside the apartment with the suspect was not hurt, Harrison said, nor was anyone else in the building. The girlfriend was taken in for questioning by police.
The area is cordoned off for much of the morning as authorities investigated.
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