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Jamal Funes, man accused of shooting officers in Brooklyn, charged with attempted murder, cops say

William Reddin   and Andrew Yurkiw,  New York City police officers from Long Island,  were in stable condition after being shot   Saturday morning, Feb. 20, 2016, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, according to the NYPD. The suspect, Jamal Funes, 34, was critically injured, police said.
William Reddin and Andrew Yurkiw, New York City police officers from Long Island, were in stable condition after being shot Saturday morning, Feb. 20, 2016, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, according to the NYPD. The suspect, Jamal Funes, 34, was critically injured, police said. Photo Credit: iStock

The man accused of a shootout with officers in Brooklyn over the weekend was charged with first-degree attempted murder on Sunday, police said.

Jamal Funes, 34, of Egg Harbor, New Jersey, was charged with a number of offenses, including assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. 

A .357 caliber revolver was found in the front seat of the car, with five spent shell casings, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said during a news conference on Saturday. 

During the early morning shootout, officers William Reddin and Andrew Yurkiw were wounded.

According to NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis, ballistic tests completed Sunday showed that Yurkiw was struck in the vest by a round fired from the suspect’s gun. Reddin had bullet fragments in his hip, which required further tests.

There is no indication at this time that the incident had a connection with terrorism, Davis said. It was a chance encounter between the suspect and the cops, according to the spokesman. Investigators have been exploring whether either officer was hit by friendly fire from other cops.

Reddin remained in the hospital on Sunday, with a non-life-threatening injury. Yurkiw has been released.

On Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Reddin didn’t want to talk about the shooting. Instead, he wanted to boast about ShotSpotter and how he used it to take an illegal gun of the streets.

“The thing that he wanted me to note the most was the day before, he had gotten a gun off the guns of this community and he was very proud of that,” de Blasio said at an unrelated event at Mount Pigsah Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Officers spotted Funes traveling the wrong way up the street near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard, ramming his car into a marked police car, according to police.

During an exchange of gunfire, the two officers, both plainclothes and assigned to anti-crime, were hit, police said.

Funes was struck and taken to Brookdale Hospital in critical condition. It was not immediately clear when Funes would be arraigned and attorney information was not immediately available for him.

With Emily Ngo and Anthony M. Destefano