NYPD officer shot and killed during struggle with suspect
NEW YORK >> A New York City police officer grappling with an armed man died early Sunday in the Bronx after being shot three times, possibly with his own gun.
The 27-year-old suspect also died after five officers fired at him, police officials said. He has not been publicly identified yet.
The NYPD identified the slain officer as 33-year-old Brian Mulkeen.
“We lost a hero this evening,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference outside Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.
Mulkeen was patrolling the streets around a city apartment complex at around 12:30 a.m. as part of a unit investigating potential gang activity, Chief of Department Terence Monahan said.
Mulkeen and his partner tried to apprehend a man who had fled questioning, and a struggle on the ground ensued, Monahan said.
As the men wrestled, Mulkeen’s body camera recorded him saying, “He’s reaching for it! He’s reaching for it!”
“Officer Mulkeen’s gun fired five times,” Monahan said. “At this point, it is not clear who fired Officer Mulkeen’s gun.”
A .32-caliber revolver that police say belonged to the man was recovered. It had not been fired, Monahan said.
Monahan said the suspect was on probation until 2022 for a narcotics-related arrest last year and had several prior arrests, including a burglary conviction in Rockland County.
Mulkeen had served nearly seven years with the department and worked out of the 47th precinct. He lived with his girlfriend, an NYPD police officer in the Bronx’s 44th precinct.
Monahan called the officer “brave,” and said he was “doing the job we asked him to do, a job that New Yorkers needed him to do.”