Woman, girl hit in firefight between cops and suspect

A woman and young girl were wounded in the crossfire of a wild shootout on a Bronx street Wednesday as police chased and shot a masked gunman carrying a red backpack filled with suspected drugs, police said.

The suspect had just ripped off a group of drug dealers in the lobby of an apartment building on W. 183rd St. near Loring Place North in University Heights around 6:10 p.m. and was running away, his gun blazing, when officers on patrol spotted him, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said.

“Video shows the suspect firing at people in the lobby,” Monahan said. “(The officers) saw him run out of the building with a mask on his face holding a backpack to his chest.”

The suspect turned his gun on the officers, who responded by firing between 20 and 25 times, Monahan said. They then chased the gunman to W. Fordham Road, shooting him through the neck, he said.

The police also recovered a.25-caliber semi-automatic pistol and a kilo of suspected drugs in the red backpack he was carrying.

A 12-year-old girl was caught in the crossfire and hit in the leg, either by a bullet or a fragment, as was a woman, who was struck in the stomach, cop sources said.

The woman, Irene Ureña Perez, 45, lives nearby and was returning home from her work as a babysitter, her daughter, Dharian Hernandez Ureña, told the Daily News.

“She is a quiet woman coming home from work,” the daughter said. “I’m mad at what happened.”

The gunman fired at least three shots at the officers.

It’s not clear whose bullets hit the bystanders, Monahan said.

The woman and gunman were both taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in serious condition, authorities said.

Medics took the girl to Bronx Lebanon Hospital. She’s expected to survive, authorities said.