Chaos overcame the New York City police department Thursday night when three cops and a civilian were shot and wounded in two unrelated incidents, leaving one gunman dead, authorities said.
The first incident occurred shortly before 6:30 p.m. when an off-duty officer, Juan Pichardo, was wounded while fighting off robbers at his car dealership in the Bronx. Four suspects were later arrested.
The second incident happened an hour later on a subway train in Brooklyn when two officers, Michael Levay and Lukasz Kozicki, and a civilian were wounded in a gun battle. The officers spotted a man moving between subway cars and approached him to tell him that doing so was not allowed. The man drew a gun on them, shooting Kozicki three times in his upper thighs and groin, grazing Levay in the back and a civilian in the leg. Officer Levay shot and killed him.
“In recent weeks we’ve heard that what stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Thursday night at a news conference, held at Lutheran Medical Center. “But sometimes the good guys get shot.”
The three officers and one civilian are expected to make full recoveries.