He waited with gun — & shot cop
An eerie security camera video captured a deranged, naked man in a shooting stance just seconds before he opened fire on a city cop, igniting a manic Harlem hallway shootout that left the gunman dead in a fusillade of NYPD bullets, police said Thursday.
The black-and-white video captured Victor Hernandez, wearing nothing but a pair of dark socks, leaning back with both arms extended and his hands wrapped around a 9-mm. handgun just before Officer Christopher Wintermute arrived on the second floor of the building early Wednesday morning.
Police said Hernandez (photo) stood waiting for the cops with his gun pointed down the hallway for two or three minutes before pulling the trigger at the sight of the officers.
Wintermute and two fellow cops unleashed a fatal 17shot barrage after Hernandez, the building superintendent, fired first, police said. Wintermute, hit from close range on the right side of his chest, was saved by his bullet-resistant vest as a violent struggle ensued between police and the suspect.
NYPD Deputy Chief Kevin Maloney said eight cops were canvassing the building after answering a pair of 911 calls about a man smashing glass and banging on doors at around 2 a.m.
“As soon as the officers come around the corner, the subject is there and discharges his firearm,” said Maloney.
Hernandez, 29, the son of a Bronx police officer, was hit by 10 bullets and pronounced dead at the scene. The slain man had a rap sheet with a half-dozen arrests for domestic violence, with the last coming in 2014.
According to the latest NYPD statistics, the number of police-involved shootings is up dramatically so far this year— from 27 at this point in 2018 to 47 so far this year. In 22 of this year’s incidents, police were shooting at a suspect, compared with just 10 of the incidents last year.
The video showed Wintermute, the lead officer on the search for Hernandez, coming in from the right side of the frame and then dropping to the ground after the suspect fires from close range. A wounded Wintermute goes to the floor, kicking wildly at the assailant as Hernandez charges directly at him.
“As a result of the [bullet’s] impact, Officer Wintermute is knocked to the ground and then gets up and there’s a physical confrontation,” said Maloney.
Police body camera video confirmed that Hernandez fired the first shot, according to cops. And Maloney said there was a small animal, apparently killed and left in the hallway, near the scene of the deadly confrontation.
Hernandez, a father of two, lived upstairs in the building where he worked as the superintendent for the last 14 months. His handgun was not registered in the city, and was purchased three years ago in Ohio, cops said.
After the victim’s devastated mother Maria called for a probe of the fatal shooting, Maloney said there would be “an independent investigation” into the incident.
The bullet pulled from the vest belonging to Wintermute, 34, was matched by the police lab with Hernandez’s handgun, cops said. Wintermute fired two shots, a second responding officer fired eight times, while a third squeezed off seven shots. Wintermute was briefly hospitalized and then released.
Police were initially unsure if the shooting was the third case of friendly fire for the department this year.
Officer Brian Mulkeen was shot and killed Sept. 29 in the Bronx while battling with an armed suspect at a city housing project. And Detective Brian Simonsen, a 19-year veteran, was fatally struck in the chest by a crossfire of police bullets back on Feb. 12.
“There’s no such thing as a routine call,” said NYPD Assistant Chief Fausto Pichardo. “Police officers run toward the unknown, often chaotic and violent situations.”