NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said both officers are in stable condition and will recover, and he praised their police work in quickly responding to an armed robbery. The department is “always concerned about officers’ safety,” Bratton told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “One of the things that I would point out is the extraordinary courage and incentivization of the officers.” According to police officials, two men committed an armed robbery of a grocery store in the Bronx shortly after midnight, then walked up the street and changed clothes. The officers who were shot had just finished their shift but responded to the call anyway, spotting the suspects walking up the street. That’s when, police said, Jason Polanco, 24, ducked into a restaurant while Joshua Kemp, 28, remained outside on the sidewalk and was confronted by the officers. Polanco then opened fire, police said, firing three shots that struck two of the officers and Kemp.
One officer returned fire, shooting three times, but did not hit either suspect. The suspects then ran away and carjacked a vehicle before ditching the weapon and continuing to flee. Hours later, Kemp was questioned and eventually taken into custody after he checked himself into a New York hospital. Police said Polanco was identified by tipsters who phoned in after an image from the video footage of the robbery was released. He was apprehended by officers later in the day. In a statement released to local media, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch decried the shooting and issued a warning. “Once again, the police officers of the NYPD rose to the occasion and collared the two cowardly thugs who shot two responding officers during a robbery last evening,” Lynch said. “All of the thugs need to know that when you attack one of us, you attack all of us and that the NYPD will do all in its power to bring you to justice and to hold you accountable.”
The shooting came as the city remains locked in a bitter public battle involving the mayor, protesters against police brutality, the police union and members of the police force. Police officers believe that their jobs are being made even more dangerous as a result of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. On Tuesday afternoon, the FBI announced that it had arrested a 24-year-old man in Mount Vernon, N.Y., for allegedly making social media threats to kill police officers. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has come under fire from the police union and many officers after he noted the existence of racial factors in people’s experience with police. He remarked that he has had conversations with his son, who is biracial, about interacting with officers. Those comments enraged some officers, who viewed them as a betrayal. When two NYPD officers were ambushed and killed in December, officers displayed their anger by turning their backs on de Blasio when he spoke at the officers’ funerals.
In an interview with NPR, Lynch said an apology from de Blasio would go a long way toward mending his relationships with the union and rank-and-file officers. He reiterated concerns that heated political rhetoric has made the streets more dangerous for New York officers. Lynch’s critics say he has been one of the primary sources of such rhetoric. “City Hall is creating a climate where every interaction with police officers turns into a confrontation,” Lynch said, according to an excerpt of the interview provided to The Post. “When [Mayor de Blasio] attacks the New York City Police Department, he’s attacking his own department and his own policies. If the policy is wrong, then change it. We’ll follow our orders and effectively police that policy. But when he criticizes his department, he’s criticizing his own policy.”
Suspects arrested after NYPD officers shot overnight - The Washington Post
