NEW YORK (AP) - An off-duty New York City police officer shot and wounded an armed man who was apparently trying to carjack the officer’s car early Wednesday, police said.
The officer fired after the man had shot at him and barely missed him, Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said at a news conference at the shooting scene in Brooklyn.
The confrontation happened just after 2 a.m. in the Canarsie neighborhood. The officer was driving home when a man approached his car and knocked on the driver’s-side window with a gun, Harrison said.
The officer pulled away and got out of his car, Harrison said. The man fired at the officer and the officer returned fire, striking the other man in the chest, he said.
The would-be carjacker was hospitalized in serious condition, police said. His name was not immediately released. Charges against him were pending. The officer was evaluated for tinnitus, Harrison said.
Surveillance video posted on Twitter by a reporter for News 12 Brooklyn shows the man falling to the street after the officer fires at him.
Harrison said there was no indication that the man was intentionally targeting a police officer.
Two guns and a knife were recovered at the scene, he said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.