Two bystanders hurt Wednesday evening during a shootout between a man and police in the Bronx were hit by bullets from an officer, police sources close to the investigation tell NY1.
The NYPD said plainclothes officers were near 183rd Street and Loring Place around 6:10 p.m. when they saw someone running in their direction while wearing a mask over his face and clutching a backpack against his body.
(A gun and a backpack filled with narcotics that the NYPD says it recovered from a man in the Bronx on Wednesday after he fired shots at police.)
Police on Thursday evening identified the man as 37-year-old Edwin Castillo-Concepcion of the Bronx. He has been charged with attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
The NYPD said as an officer approached him, Castillo-Concepcion pulled out a gun and shot at him, missing the officer. The officer then chased the shooter down Loring Place, exchanging gunfire.
Police said Castillo-Concepcion was taken into custody as he approached West Fordham Road, and a .25-caliber gun was recovered at the scene. He was transported to St. Barnabas Hospital with a gunshot wound to his neck and foot. His wounds were not considered life-threatening.
Police officials said two bystanders were shot along Loring Place: a woman who was shot once in the stomach and was listed in stable condition at a local hospital, and a 12-year-old girl who was hit in the leg by bullet fragments and transported to another hospital for treatment. She was also listed in stable condition. Police sources tell us the bullet and fragments were both from a police officer's gun. Sources also said the officer fired 27 times pursuing the suspect.
Sources tell NY1 the officer who fired his gun was 30-year-old Juan Gomez, a five-year veteran of the NYPD who had not previously discharged his gun.
Sources said the other officer, 32-year-old Brandon Gembecki, did not fire his gun because he got in his car to chase after the suspect and back up his partner.
The officers were not hit during the shootout, but they were taken to a hospital for observation because of elevated heartrates.
Sources said the NYPD also deployed a drone for the first time to document the crime scene.
NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said police reviewed surveillance video that showed the suspect committing a drug rip-off in the lobby of a building on West 183rd Street near Andrews Avenue North and firing a gun at people in the lobby.
According to Monahan, authorities recovered a backpack from the shooter on West Fordham Road that contained a large brick of narcotics.
Sources say the suspect may have been working with someone else in the robbery.