NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A “career criminal” wanted for multiple armed robberies shot and wounded an NYPD officer before he was fatally shot by that officer on a crowded Queens street Tuesday, police said as they revealed he'd just been released after being arrested for drugs and resisting arrest.
The officer, Rich Wong, who has seven years on the force, was shot in the thigh. He was recovering at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD officials spoke Tuesday night.
A 26-year-old woman was also recovering at that hospital after she was shot in the leg during the exchange of gunfire. It’s unclear who shot her; police said she was shot due to the suspect’s “disregard.”
The suspect— Gary Worthy, 57, of Springfield Gardens—was shot once in the face by Wong and pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital, police said.
According to the NYPD, Worthy has 17 prior arrests, including for murder, robbery, burglary and drug possession. He has been arrested seven times since 2021 and was on lifetime parole for a firearms conviction.
The shooting happened shortly after 6:30 p.m. in the area of 161 Jamaica Ave. as Wong and his partner were canvassing for the suspect in two robberies that had occurred over the past hour at a smoke shop at 92-18 Guy R. Brewer Blvd. and at a bodega at 164-01 Hillside Ave.
A witness flagged the officers down and pointed to a man—later determined to be Worthy—who they tried to stop, police said. Instead, he allegedly fled on Jamaica Avenue and brandished a gun, which was later recovered.
“These two officers order him to drop the gun,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. “He does not do so. He fires one shot, striking police officer Wong in his thigh—through and through injury. Police officer Wong is forced to return fire. He strikes the suspect one time in his face.”
Bystanders dove for cover as the shootout unfolded on a busy stretch of Jamaica Avenue during the Tuesday evening rush.
Police described Worthy as a “career criminal,” noting his long rap sheet and his most recent arrest—just last week for possession of felony narcotics and resisting arrest, for which he’d been released on his own recognizance.
In addition to the two robberies on Tuesday, he was wanted for three additional gunpoint robberies between Halloween and Nov. 15. “Shots were also fired at these robberies,” Kenny said.
Adams said the suspect was a “very dangerous individual” who showed disregard for the lives of others. The mayor noted that the shooting happened just a day after three people were killed in a stabbing spree across Manhattan, allegedly committed by a man with "severe" mental illness who the mayor said was "out on the street" despite being sentenced in a criminal case a few months ago and arrested in a grand larceny case last month.
“We are grateful tonight, but we are also angry,” Adams said Tuesday from the hospital. “We're angry because we have witnessed in two days a criminal justice system that is failing New Yorkers and the good people of this city. We're angry that a violent, repeated offender who has prior gun arrests, who pled guilty to manslaughter, and who was arrested for seven crimes since 2021 alone was free to commit two robberies tonight, one up on Hillside Avenue area and another down on Jamaica Avenue.”