NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- An NYPD narcotics detective was shot and wounded by friendly fire in Queens on Friday morning as police tried to stop a "career criminal" who had carjacked an Uber driver during a crime spree—a day after he was arrested and released while out on parole, officials said.
At a press conference from Jamaica Hospital, Mayor Eric Adams said that the officer is a narcotics detective from Patrol Borough Queens South. He and other narcotics detectives were returning from an unrelated search warrant shortly before 9 a.m. when they stopped to help NYPD officers as they confronted the carjacker off the Whitestone Expressway in Whitestone.
“During the apprehension, one detective from Queens South narcotics was shot twice, wounded in the arm and the leg,” Adams said. “At this time, it appears this was a friendly fire incident.”
The detective was shot in the right hand and left leg as officers from the 109th Precinct discharged their firearms at 8:57 a.m., police said.
Adams said the detective has 12 years of service and has a wife who is expecting a child soon. He was in surgery at the hospital but is in "good spirits" and expected to make a full recovery.
The suspect, Kevin Dubuisson, 28, was not shot and was taken into custody. No firearm was recovered on him.
The mayor described Dubuisson as a recidivist “with a lengthy rap sheet of robbery and assaulting officers” who “was on parole for a robbery that took place in March and was literally arrested again and released yesterday with a desk appearance ticket.”
“Before going out to attempt a carjacking in Queens, he walked out of one of our criminal justice locations,” the mayor added. “This is the definition, I believe, of insanity. Arresting the same people over and over again, and expecting different results.”
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Dubuisson has "10 career unsealed arrests," including multiple knifepoint robberies and multiple assaults on police officers. He is a four-time convicted felon who was out on parole for robbery after being released from prison in March, she said. He was arrested again Thursday for theft of service in Manhattan and released on a desk appearance ticket.
Tisch said that during the carjacking, Dubuisson held the Uber driver at gunpoint and repeatedly assaulted him—first while taking the SUV and then again while returning to steal the key fob from the driver. The driver was not seriously injured.
And before the carjacking, Dubuisson tried to steal a car from a Mobil gas station at Parson Boulevard and 20th Avenue at 8:40 a.m. but was scared off by employees, Tisch said. Just two minutes later, he allegedly tried to carjack a woman on Parsons Boulevard but was scared off by her husband. He then encountered the Uber driver on the Whitestone Expressway service road at 22nd Road.
"This chain of events, which could have ended quite differently, began because a career criminal—a person who has terrorized victims for nearly a decade—was allowed to continue his violent spree," Tisch said, adding it was "unconscionable" he was out on the streets.