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[h1]NYPD cops hit by own shots: 3 police officers wounded as pit bull attacks on upper East Side[/h1]
BY Bob Kappstatter, Simone Weichselbaum, Alison Gendar and Leo Standora
Thursday, July 9th 2009, 1:11 AM
Keivom/News
A man believed to be an NYPD officer is treated at scene of shooting on upper East Side Wednesday night.
Three cops were hit with ricocheting bullets Wednesday night while blasting away at a pit bull attacking them in a narrow passageway of an upper East Side housing project, police said.
Three other officers were either bitten or scratched by the dog before cops killed it, they said. None of the injuries was serious, but one cop was hit under the eye.
Police said the mayhem in the Isaacs Houses at 1806 First Ave. and 94th St., which sent scores of people running for cover on the street below, began about 10:30 p.m. when cops went in to investigate a 911 call about an assault with a gun.
When they got to the 11th floor of the 20-story building and knocked on the door of the apartment in question, a woman opened it and the snarling pit bull leaped out. All six cops went for their guns while trying to fend the dog off with their hands and feet, police said.
Samaria Marrero, who was in a bodega on the corner of E. 95th St., ran out to see what was going on when she heard the first shot.
"There were five shots at least," she said.
"At first we thought it was firecrackers. We went to see to be nosy, and there was a cop on the floor." Investigators said the woman in the apartment, identified as Milagros Martinez, slammed the door on the cops after the gunfire ended and the dog was dead. She suffered a hand injury and was arrested, police said.
Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said five other people in the apartment then barricaded themselves inside for about a half-hour.
They surrendered quietly after a hostage negotiator talked to them for about 20 minutes.
Browne said the cop hurt the worst took a bullet fragment below the eye. Another officer was hit in the hand, and a third was hit on the side of his nose.
All of the officers were treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.
Browne said no weapon was found in the apartment.
But he said investigators believe the woman "deliberately" set the pit bull on the cops.
During the drama, the streets outside were packed with police cruisers and emergency vehicles as dozens of cops swarmed in and around the building, which has open-air hallways.
As he viewed the commotion, Isiah Marrero, 13, said he hoped the cop with the eye injury being taken away on a stretcher would be okay.
"He used to work on the block, he was a nice guy. Everybody likes him. He's cool."
agendar@nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/07/08/2009-07-08_nypd_cops_hit_by_own_shots_3_finest_wounded_as_pit_bull_attacks_on_upper_east_si.html#ixzz0KlqmWaHy&D
