NYC police ambushed twice in 12 hours

NEW YORK — A gunman was taken into custody Sunday after he ambushed police officers in the Bronx twice in 12 hours, wounding two in attacks that ignited outrage from officials who blamed the violence on an atmosphere of anti-police rhetoric.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was captured after he walked into a police station in the Bronx and started shooting shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday. His shots struck a lieutenant in the arm and narrowly missed other police personnel before he ran out of bullets, lay down and tossed his pistol.

That attack came just hours after the same man approached a patrol van in the same part of the Bronx late Saturday and fired at two officers inside, wounding one before escaping on foot, police said.

Despite multiple shots fired in both incidents, nobody was killed, and all are expected to recover, police said. “It is only by the grace of God and the heroic actions of those inside the building that took him into custody that we are not talking about police officers murdered inside a New York City police precinct,” police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a news conference.

The officer injured in the first shooting, Paul Stroffolino, was released from the hospital Sunday to applause from a sizable contingent of fellow officers. The officer, a bandage visible on his neck, gave a thumbs-up to the crowd. Shea called the gunman a “coward” and said he had a lengthy criminal history, including a 2002 shooting and carjacking in which he also fired a gun at police officers. Shea said the man was paroled from prison in 2017 after an attempted murder conviction.

The commissioner also lashed out at criminal justice reform activists who have held demonstrations against excessive force by police. He suggested the protests helped create an anti-police environment.