NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A man is dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting at police officers serving a warrant and then barricading himself in a Harlem apartment on Wednesday morning, the NYPD said.
A team of officers assigned to the Manhattan North warrant squad was attempting to apprehend the 23-year-old on a domestic violence charge at a fifth-floor apartment on W. 147th Street, near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, around 8:30 a.m. when he opened fire just feet away from them as they were in a doorway, Chief of Department Rodney Harrison said.
None of the officers were struck, according to Harrison, who said one officer returned fire before police retreated down a hallway in the building.
The emergency service unit and hostage negotiation team were called to the scene, and negotiators began a dialogue with the man, who did not respond, police said.
The NYPD urged people to avoid the area amid the two-hour standoff. Citizen App video shows armored police vehicles at the scene.
A woman was also in the apartment, according to Harrison, who said she was “safe at this time.” He said he believed the two were in a relationship and it was unclear if she was “in danger.”
ESU eventually got a visual on the man inside the apartment and noticed he “appeared to be lying on the ground inside the living room,” Harrison said.
When officers entered the apartment, they found him “motionless” with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
He was pronounced dead at the scene and a firearm was recovered, according to police.
In addition to the domestic violence charge, Harrison called the man a “potential suspect in a murder” in East Harlem last month.
Police, citing preliminary information, initially said he'd been "taken into custody" but later clarified that he'd been found dead.
