NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- A suspect was arrested in this week's shooting of an NYPD officer in Queens, police said Friday.
Devin Spraggins, 22, was arrested by members of the New York-New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force at 9 p.m. Thursday in the Wakefield section of the Bronx.
Members of the NYPD and the U.S. Marshals executed a search warrant from the Queens D.A. at a home at Bronx Boulevard and E. 240th Street, taking Spraggins into custody without incident, Chief of Detectives James Essig said at a news conference from NYPD headquarters in Manhattan.
Spraggins was charged with attempted murder of a police officer in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, assault and obstructing governmental administration.
"He will now be held to account," NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said, noting that the suspect and the officer are both 22 years old.
Police were able to track down Spraggins by following the trip he took in a black Nissan, operated by a Lyft driver, from the shooting scene in Jamaica to a home at 215th Street and 102nd Avenue in Queens Village.
"Computer workups on that residence" led detectives to social media accounts that helped them identify their suspected shooter, Essig said.
Although the suspect wasn't at the home when police executed a search warrant from the Queens D.A., investigators were able to "garnish significant leads" that led them to the Bronx Boulevard address more that 15 miles away.
Essig described Spraggins as a "transient" who "bounces around from here to there," with connections from Poughkeepsie down to Georgia.
Spraggins was not known to the NYPD and has no criminal record in New York, Essig said.
While taking Spraggins into custody, police recovered a 9mm handgun from the home, Essig said, noting that a 9mm shell casing was recovered at the scene of the shooting. Forensics is working to see if ballistics match the gun.
The wounded officer, Brett Boller, was in stable condition Friday at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center following surgery. He has severe injuries to his hip and leg, including to his bones.
The rookie from Hauppauge—who was just three months into the job when he was shot in Jamaica on Wednseday—is expected to be hospitalized through the weekend and into next week. His injury will require months of rehabilitation.
Boller's mother told Newsday that the family has been "on autopilot" since he was shot. "We’re just focused on Brett and getting him better." Boller's father is a 30-year veteran of the NYPD.
Boller was shot around 3:20 p.m. Wednesday in Jamaica Center while responding to an altercation over a seat on an MTA bus.
When the bus operator flagged down officers for help at 161st Street and Jamaica Avenue, one of two men fighting over the seat pushed past them and fled the bus.
When officers caught up to him about a block away, he pulled a gun and shot Boller in the leg.
The wounded officer's partner fired twice but apparently didn't strike the gunman.
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