Police arrest 3 suspects in Bronx shooting of two NYPD cops
06 January 2015 02:03 PM
BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA , EDGAR SANDOVAL, TINA MOORE, LARRY MCSHANE
A suspected cop shooter was busted Tuesday in the Bronx, hours after opening fire on two officers from point-blank range after a grocery store robbery, sources said.
Fugitive Jason Polanco was on the run since fleeing the shootout that followed the late-night holdup, sources said, and he was arrested at Tremont and Westchester Ave.
Sources indicated cops now have three suspects in custody in the Monday night attack that started after five officers rushed to the crime scene — even though their shifts were done and they were about to go home.
Police sources had said there was possibly a third suspect involved along with the two men who robbed the store.
A shocking videotape captured the gun-toting bandit firing point-blank on the two cops as they frisked his sidekick on a Bronx sidewalk, a police source said.
"The video is sickening," the source said Tuesday as the injured officers recovered from their gunshot wounds.
The gunman, after the robbery of a nearby deli, ducked inside a Chinese restaurant, bought an iced tea and then opened fire on the unsuspecting officers from less than 5 feet away.
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"He reaches into his pants and takes the gun out," the source said. "He goes right to the window, like he's about to head outside, and fires through the window.
"Then he goes through the door, comes out and shoots these cops as they were frisking the other guy."
Police say they believe the gunman wounded his criminal colleague as well.
A $22,000 reward was posted Tuesday as a citywide manhunt continued for the shooter who wounded the cops.
Police released a photo and video of the wanted man before citizens group COPSHOT doubled its reward to $20,000 for the fugitive shooter's capture. The city is offering an additional $2,000.
The second possible suspect was already in custody after arriving with a gunshot wound at a Manhattan hospital shortly after the gunfight, police said.
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There were no other details on the third arrest.
Officers Andrew Dossi, 30, and Aliro Pellerano, 38, finished their Monday shift before they were shot while answering an armed robbery call around 10:30 p.m. in Fordham, police said.
Dossi suffered gunshot wounds to his left arm and the lower back and underwent surgery at St. Barnabas Hospital. Pellerano was shot in the chest and left arm and was listed in stable condition.
Both were expected to survive, and neither was expected to leave the hospital Tuesday, said a hospital spokesman. Neither of the cops was wearing a bulletproof vest, as both rushed to the scene after their shift ended, cops said.
The cops were called after two men — one with a gun, the other wielding a knife — barged into the Welcome 2 Yemen store, according to employee Nooreidin Algabyli, 20.
One of the pair "jumped over the counter," the worker said Tuesday. "He said, 'Nobody move!' I was shocked. They took everything."
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Within minutes, Algabyli said he heard the bullets flying as the two suspects fled.
"I heard cops yelling: 'Two cops got shot! Two cops got shot!'" the clerk recounted. "I was thinking, 'Oh, no ... not again.'"
John Murphy, owner of My Guard Security Corp., said Pellerano worked for his firm for about eight years before joining the NYPD in 2006.
"This is actually a shock to me because it's the first I'm hearing about this," he said. "He's a sweetheart. He's the best person you could ever want to meet."
The wounded officers were part of a five-member plainclothes team signing out after their shift ended when a call came in about the armed robbery near the 46th Precinct.
When they arrived on the scene at 363 E. 180th St., they observed two possible suspects near the corner of E. 184th St. The robbers had been described as wearing ski masks and puffy jackets.
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As the cops approached, one suspect fled into the Chinese restaurant on Tiebout Ave. while the other remained outside on the street.
The officers returned fire when the suspect inside the restaurant started shooting, police said.
The wounded cops have eight and nine years on the force. One of them fired once and the other fired three times.
The armed robbers fled on foot one block east to Marion Ave., where they carjacked a white Camaro rental car with two women inside.
One of the thieves crashed the car at E. 188th St. and Park Ave., and the .44 caliber Ruger revolver was recovered one block away from the wreck.
At about 11:10 p.m., a 28-year-old man arrived at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan with a gunshot wound to his back, police said. The man was still in custody Tuesday and undergoing questioning about what happened.
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Police sources said the wounded man was not the gunman, but could be the second suspect.
The shooting came one day after the funeral of Officer Wenjian Liu and a week after Officer Rafael Ramos was laid to rest.
Those two officers were assassinated Dec. 20 when cop-hating madman Ismaaiyl Brinsley ambushed them in their squad car outside the Tompkins Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? CLICK HERE TO SEE SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE OF THE SUSPECT AND HERE TO WATCH VIDEO OF THE CRIME SCENE.
With Thomas Tracy
rparascandola@nydailynews.com
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