Followup for Officer shot in NY

[Growler]

NY Daily News

Officer shot in NYC; 2nd officer and her husband are arrested

By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer


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NEW YORK (AP) -- An undercover officer had been shot, and police were hunting for the suspect's vehicle. They soon found it - with another officer behind the wheel, police said.

The driver, Officer Jacqueline Melendez-Rivera, quickly became a subject of an investigation by the force on which she has served for 13 years. As police pieced together an account of the shootout Saturday on a Brooklyn street, Melendez-Rivera's husband, Jose Rivera, was arrested on attempted murder and other charges, and she was accused of helping to cover up the crime.

The wounded officer, Andrew Suarez, was in serious but stable condition early Sunday at a local hospital, police said. Struck in the back, he was expected to make a full recovery, according to police.

The violent confrontation unfolded just after 4 a.m. Saturday in Brooklyn's Park Slope section. Investigators said Suarez and three fellow plainclothes officers, who were on a routine anti-crime watch, pulled their unmarked car over to get a closer look at a vehicle driving behind them. That vehicle then slowed alongside the officers.

The driver leaned across the body of a male passenger, shouted "You got a beef?" and fired a shot at Suarez, who was driving the unmarked police car, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The bullet traveled underneath Suarez' bulletproof vest, through his back and lodged in his neck. A second shot may also have been fired, Kelly said.

The three officers with Suarez returned fire, blasting at least 13 shots before the other vehicle sped away, according to Kelly.

Shortly afterward, police stopped a vehicle matching the description of the one that had carried the attackers. They found Melendez-Rivera driving it, Kelly said.

Just what the officer was doing with the car, a mile and a half from the crime scene, was unclear, Kelly said before the arrests. Authorities said then that they did not believe the 37-year-old officer was present for the shooting.

Her husband and another man were later detained at the couple's nearby home. Police said they later recovered a loaded 9mm handgun in a yard on the same block.

Melendez-Rivera, who was suspended from duty, was arrested on charges of hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence, obstructing governmental administration and unlawful possession of marijuana, police said.

Her 31-year-old husband was arrested on charges of attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, defacing a firearm, tampering with evidence, menacing and criminal possession of marijuana, according to police.

There was no listed telephone number at the couple's address, and a police spokesman said he had no information on whether the pair had lawyers. A spokesman for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association said he was uncertain whether any of the group's lawyers were representing Melendez-Rivera.

Meanwhile, Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with the injured officer at the hospital Saturday morning and said he was in good spirits.

"We joked and we laughed," Bloomberg said. "We're just lucky this wasn't an awful lot worse."

Suarez was appointed to the force in 2003 and is assigned to the 78th precinct. He was the first city police officer shot this year, and the third wounded by gunfire since October.

"Let us pray that it's the last," Bloomberg said.

[Willowdared]

Holy crap!

How did she get thru backgrounds married to a gang-banger?

[vicat777]

This story is very sad. It reminds me of the New Orleans female officer that killed one of her own just to rob a chinese restaurant while one duty.

[10-42Adam]

Another bad apple is weeded out. (No pun intended!)

I'm just glad to hear the Officer seems to be doing okay. Too many immature "kids" out there somehow end up getting guns in their hands...