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Gunman behind Bronx cop ambush opens fire inside precinct: authorities
Just hours after ambushing a pair of cops and shooting one in the chin, an unhinged gunman stormed a Bronx police precinct and emptied his clip — striking a lieutenant before being taken into custo…
nypost.com
METRO
Gunman behind Bronx cop ambush opens fire inside precinct: authorities
By Tina Moore, Sam Raskin and Craig McCarthy
February 9, 2020 | 8:27am | Updated
16
Police stand guard at the crime scene in the Bronx.
G.N. Miller
Just hours after ambushing a pair of cops and shooting one in the chin, an unhinged gunman stormed a Bronx police precinct and emptied his clip — striking a lieutenant before being taken into custody by officers, officials said.
The armed man, identified by sources as Robert Williams, walked into the station house on Longwood Avenue in Huntspoint around 8 a.m. and started shooting, according to the sources.
Lt. Jose Gautreaux was hit by gunfire in the arm, the sources said.
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The shooting comes less than 12 hours after a pair of Bronx cops were shot at while sitting in a marked patrol van in the neighborhood. Only one of the officers was injured in the unprovoked attack.
Williams, who was in custody, was injured somehow in the incident and was taken to the hospital for his injuries, sources said. The extent of his injuries was unknown.
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One police source grumbled about the lack of security at the Hunts Point station house.
“If any command should have had station house security, the 41 should have had it… there’s supposed to be somebody outside at all times,” the source said.
“There’s supposed to be a cop assigned outside of the precinct to make sure something like this doesn’t happen, especially after what happened yesterday. The department has become too complacent.”
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Jesse Colson, a 30-year-old who lives near the precinct, said he heard helicopters and sirens after the shots went off.
“I was shocked because every once in a while things happen over here, but you don’t really hear of cops getting shot… and it’s like right here. It’s too close for comfort.”
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A 62-year-old worker at a nearby bodega, Ahmed El Nage, said he wasn’t surprised about the bloodshed and blamed cops for looking the other way to crime in the neighborhood.
“This neighborhood now, there’s too much trouble. A lot of people after 5, 6 o’clock there are six, seven, eight, 10 people, drinking alcohol, smoking weed,” Nage complained to a reporter.
But Colson said to The Post that no matter how people feel about police, “at the end of the day, they’re people too… they have families to go back to. It just sucks that people have to get shot like that.”
Cesar Urquiola echoed Colson’s sentiment, calling the pair of encounter “sad.”
“I’m sad for those two officers. They got families. These people are here to protect us. It’s crazy. It’s crazy that someone could do that,” Urquiola said.
