OFF-DUTY COP SHOT
Was napping in his car before next shift
An off-duty NYPD cop suffered a fractured skull Saturday when someone shot out the window of his car as he slept in a Manhattan precinct’s parking lot between shifts, police said.
The officer, a seven-year veteran identified by authorities only by his first name but who sources said was Keith Wagenhauser, was recovering following surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, authorities said.
The bizarre incident marked the first significant shooting of the new year, which saw no homicides for much of the holiday and only two other shootings.
Wagenhauser, 33, had finished a New Year’s Eve shift and was reclining in the driver’s seat of his car, resting before a scheduled day tour, when the bullet shattered a rear passenger window.
“We are truly happy but angry,” Mayor Adams said outside the hospital, noting, “Mission one is to deal with the gun violence in our city.”
Adams lauded doctors for doing an “amazing job . . . to ensure that this officer received the best medical care as possible.”
The episode could have “turned out differently,” said the mayor.
Adams said the “horrendous” act took place while the officer was resting “to go back to perform duties to protect our city.”
“We are not going backwards.
We are not going to live in a state of violence, in a state that gun violence is the normality in the city of New York.”
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell also looked to set a tone on her first day on the job.
“I would say that we are lucky, fortunate and grateful on this New Year’s Day,” she said, noting that Wagenhauser ended his tour at approximately 2:30 a.m. Saturday after working eight hours at a New Year’s Eve event in Central Park.
Having to return to work at 7 a.m. New Year’s Day, Wagenhauser opted to rest in his car, parked in the lot at the 25th Precinct station house where he is based.
At about 6:15 a.m., he woke up and realized his rear window was shattered and “felt pain to the left side of his head,” Sewell said.
An on-duty sergeant outside the building entrance saw blood gushing from the officer’s head as he left his car and called an ambulance, Sewell said.
Doctors pulled bullet fragments from Wagenhauser’s head during surgery, she added.
Sewell, who held up a picture to show where the round penetrated the cop’s vehicle, said detectives are canvassing the area for surveillance video.
Sewell could not say if Wagenhauser was targeted but it “appears that the bullet was fired from a significant distance away.”