Pubdate: Thu, 23 May 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Section: New York Region
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Tina Kelley

OFFICER SHOT; 4 SUSPECTS HELD IN DRUG CASE

A plainclothes police officer was shot in the arm last night in Brooklyn 
during an undercover drug operation in which the officer traded gunfire 
with suspects, the authorities said. The officer, whose name was not 
released, was in stable condition at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, 
Detective Cheryl Cox said.

Four suspects were arrested, two of whom had been shot, the police said. 
Their names and conditions were unavailable last night.

The undercover drug operation, on the sixth or seventh floor of 301 Sutter 
Avenue, in the Langston Hughes housing project in Brownsville, turned into 
a shootout around 10 p.m., an officer at the scene said. Gunfire was 
exchanged upstairs, in the lobby, and outside the building, the police said.

The four suspects were caught within two hours. One was shot in the left 
shoulder and was arrested at the L train subway station at Atlantic and Van 
Sinderen Avenues. The second suspect was shot in the leg and arrested at 
the scene of the drug operation. The third suspect was handcuffed outside 
the building. It was unclear where the fourth suspects was arrested.

An officer on the scene said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police 
Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly were going to visit the officer at the hospital.

More than 100 officers, some with search dogs, were at the scene 
investigating the shooting..

Patsy Stephens, who lives in the building, said she was watching television 
when she heard shots. "I was on my bed and I jumped up," she said. "I ran 
in the living room. I heard shooting, pow-pow-pow-pow was all it was, and 
it frightened me."

The wounded officer was the third to be shot in Brooklyn within a month. 
Last Friday, Officer Crystal Jeffrey, a rookie, was shot twice in the arm 
while she was returning to the 70th Precinct station, where she worked. Two 
suspects have been arrested.

On April 26, Officer Michael Kreiman, another rookie, was shot in the side 
after arresting a man suspected of stripping cars in East Flatbush. Three 
men were arrested in that shooting.
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