NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – MTA police shot and killed a man who had an Uzi and fired off a round at them one block from the Jamaica subway station; this occurred minutes after he was reported for groping a 19-year-old girl on the sidewalk on Friday night, the MTAPD said.
At 10:11 p.m. on Friday, a 19-year-old victim went to MTAPD officers at the Jamaica district office and alleged that a man groped her breasts and blocked her movement on the sidewalk, officials said.
The victim showed police a photo of the suspect, which included him in a distinctive jacket with the letter ‘B’ on it, police said.
The MTA said that officers then began a canvass, and located the suspect – still clad in the distinctive jacket – in the vicinity of 91st Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard, one block from Jamaica station.
Officers tried to arrest the man, who resisted and reached toward his waistband. He refused to comply with requests to show the cops his hands, police said.
At about 10:19, the perpetrator fired a shot.
“They attempt to place him under arrest as a prolonged struggle, he refuses to put his hands behind his back, they tase him, and at some point during the struggle, a shot is fired from the perpetrator who is now deceased,” MTAPD Chief John Mueller said at a press conference early Saturday morning.
According to the MTAPD, this caused both officers to step back, pull their service weapons and see the suspect’s MAC-10 submachine gun with a 30-round extended magazine.
Both officers fired, striking the suspect in his head and on other parts of his body.
The 52-year-old man was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and pronounced dead at 11:20 p.m., authorities said.
Both officers were rushed to an area hospital with trauma, police said.
The deceased suspect was identified by officials as Bashe McDaniel, of East Harlem.
Police said that Bashe had a long criminal history and was currently on parole for a gun charge.
“He has 12 previous arrests, he has five misdemeanors, he has seven felonies, two of which, and maybe more, were gun arrests,” Mueller said.
The type of submachine gun used is commonly referred to as an Uzi, Mueller said. After the shooting, the officers recovered the weapon from underneath the suspect’s body.
MTA Police will conduct an investigation with the aid of the NYPD, and both the New York State Attorney General and MTA Inspector General have been informed.
The incident was caught on bodycam footage, police said.
Police will also open an investigation into how the suspect got hold of the weapon.
“We’ll try to track where the gun came from, how it got here and how it got into the hands of someone who’s on parole for a firearms arrest,” Mueller said.
In the MTAPD's 26-year history, this is only the third fatal shooting and fifth time an officer has had to fire in the line of duty, authorities said. Before this incident, the most recent MTA police officer-involved shooting was almost 13 years ago, on March 12, 2011.