An alleged burglar struck a police officer in the head Monday, causing him to suffer a “severe” injury, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.
The officer was struck while responding to a call of a burglary in progress inside a woman’s Queens home.
The woman, who was not identified, was on the second floor of her home about 1 p.m. when she heard someone breaking things downstairs, Boyce said. The woman called a neighbor, who called police.
When the two officers arrived, they found the back door of the Jamaica home broken.
The officers then found the suspect in the front living room of the house, Boyce said, when he allegedly attacked them.
The man, who was not immediately identified, hit one officer in the head with a metal object, either a crowbar or hammer, Boyce said. The officer suffered a “severe head injury,” he said.
The two officers then fired one shot each, striking the man twice in the wrist and thigh, police said. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center with nonlife-threatening injuries.
“We did find a substantial amount of evidence to suggest that it was a burglary,” Boyce said. “Jewelry was strewn about the house, burglar tools and things of that nature.”
Both officers were in stable condition at Jamaica Hospital, police said.
