Maspeth, Queens, police-involved shooting injures suspected burglar, NYPD says

A suspected burglar was shot in the groin by an NYPD officer at 66th Street in Maspeth, Queens, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2016, authorities say. Photo Credit: Maracatu NY

A suspected burglar was shot in the groin by police Monday afternoon in Maspeth, Queens, officials said, while at the same time a woman was found nearby in her driveway with a cable wire in her head.

The man was shot when police responded to a burglary of a firefighter’s home on 66th Street, near Hull Avenue, at about 1:30 p.m., police said.

The suspect was identified as Felix Perez, 37, a convicted burglar on parole, according to a source. Perez was arrested Tuesday, police said.

A woman who lived on the first floor of the two-family home called 911 after she saw the man inside the home on a surveillance camera, police said.

She then met the police outside of the home and let them in, police said. There, they saw the suspect and an officer fired once, hitting him.

“She saw the burglary through a remote camera feed from where she was,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. “This was a close-quarters encounter,” he added.

“The woman let the officers in, both officers began searching the house,” he said. “They got separated . . . that perpetrator then came from the bedroom and charged the one officer.”

The suspect then ran out of the building and got about a block away before police caught up with him, Boyce said, adding that the suspect has at least six prior arrests for burglaries. The suspect was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he was in stable condition.

“He is a career burglar from nearby Bushwick,” Boyce said.

The two officers involved, Boyce said, have worked 10 and 11 years with the department. The woman who called 911, he said, “was afraid for her dog the entire time.”

As this was going on, police also found a 36-year-old woman down the block in her driveway with what appeared to be “a short piece of wire” in her scalp, Boyce said. She was taken to Elmhurst where doctors removed the wire, about a quarter of an inch long, and she was listed in stable condition.

Investigators believe she suffered a seizure, a police source said.