Two NYPD cops were shot in The Bronx on Wednesday night while responding to a call of a person with a gun, police said.
The suspect opened fire at East 187th Street and Beaumont Avenue in the Belmont section at around 8 p.m., according to law-enforcement sources.
He was then shot by one of the wounded cops, police said.
“I heard shot. Like a lot of shots. I went outside. I saw all the cops,” a witness told The Post.
“The response was crazy. From everywhere. I saw a bunch of people next to the pharmacy – after the shots – like fighting or something.”
Police had received a call for a person with a gun near the location, the sources said.
The cops were in uniform when they arrived, and spotted a person who matched a description of the suspect sitting on a stoop.
One of the officers, an eight-year veteran, told the man to remove his hands from his pockets. The gunman then immediately pulled out a Ruger handgun and opened fire, according to police.
The other officer — a female Air Force reservist with one year on the job — was shot and returned fire five times, hitting the suspect. She was shot twice in the upper right arm.
The eight-year veteran struggled with the suspect and wrestled him to the ground. That officer was shot in the armpit during the struggle.
Both cops were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition. The suspect was also being treated at St. Barnabas and was expected to survive.
“Within seconds, they are in a gun battle,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a press conference late Wednesday night.
“We have two incredibly brave police officers doing their job. And not complaining a bit right now, as they’re laying recovering in the hospital, eager to get back to work, and loving what they do serving the people in New York City.”
Shea called the suspect a “career criminal” and said the firearm he used was reported stolen last year in Georgia.
Mayor DeBlasio praised the officers for their “extraordinary courage” in the face of danger.
“We saw officers doing their job protecting the people in the city with incredible bravery,” the mayor said at the hospital Wednesday night. “They want to save lives. They were not thinking about themselves.”
