The man suspected of critically shooting an off-duty officer in Brooklyn over the weekend has been apprehended by police, a source within the department confirmed to amNewYork Metro Monday evening.
While the source could not elaborate, they did verify that an unnamed 38-year-old man was taken into custody on Feb. 6 in connection to the crime. The suspect was apprehended in Rockland County, as first reported by NBC News.
The alleged gunman’s arrest comes after a wild manhunt that began on Feb. 4 — the same night a 26-year-old off-duty police officer was gunned down while attempting to buy a used car from a dealer he found on Facebook Marketplace. Cops say the officer — a five-year veteran of the force and father of two children — was making the deal with his brother-in-law behind a McDonalds’s in East New York when the suspect reneged, sticking the two up and eventually firing at the officer.
The still unidentified officer is clinging to life at Brookdale University Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.
Reports now claim the victim’s brother-in-law attempted to return fire at the suspect with his relative’s weapon, but police say the shooter — who fled the scene in a black BMW with tinted windows — was not struck.
At a press conference Saturday night, Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell pledged to apprehend the individual responsible for the shooting that has torn a family apart — something, sources say, has now been accomplished.
“An officer conducting a simple errand and a dangerous person pulled out a firearm,” the mayor said. “As we see so far and so often in the city, too many illegal guns are in the hands of bad people and doing bad things. I spoke with the officer’s wife, saw his beautiful children. We’re all lifting his family up in prayer. We will catch the person responsible for this act.”
This story is still developing, check back with amNewYork Metro for further updates.
