Police were investigating on Sunday whether any of the bullets that struck two officers during a shooting over the weekend came from friendly fire, a law enforcement official said.
Officer William Reddin was struck in the right hip during the early Saturday morning shooting, and remained in the hospital on Sunday, authorities said. A bullet also struck officer Andrew Yurkiw’s protective vest, causing blunt-force trauma. He was released from the hospital.
It all started when two uniformed housing police officers heard a shot fired near the intersection of Quincy Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Bedford Stuyvesant, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said during a news conference on Saturday.
When they approached the suspect, later identified as 34-year-old Jamal Funes, he apparently pointed a revolver at them and sped off in a vehicle. They followed and radioed for backup, Bratton said.
Traveling the wrong way up the street near the intersection of Lexington Ave and Malcolm X Boulevard, Funes then allegedly rammed into a marked police car, Bratton said.
Officers then shot at Funes, striking him several times, Bratton said. A .357 caliber revolver was found in the front seat of the car with five spent shell casings, he said.
During the shooting the two officers, both plainclothes and assigned to anti-crime, were hit. Investigators were looking into whether or not one or both of the bullets came from friendly fire.
Funes was taken to Brookdale Hospital in critical condition. No charges had been filed as of Sunday.
The officers were both taken to Kings County Hospital, where Yurkiw was treated and released. Reddin, a nine-year veteran of the department, was listed in stable condition, Bratton said.
“He’s a father of two with one more child on the way,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said about Reddin from the hospital on Saturday. “We were there with his wife and he was in great, great spirits.”
De Blasio said Yurkiw, an officer for three years, had hospital visits with his wife, father and mother.
