NYPD cops exchanged fire with a group of men while breaking up a wild Harlem gunfight, police said Tuesday.
One wounded man was arrested and upwards of 50 rounds were fired — at least five by police — during the Monday night shootout outside the Savoy Park Apartments on W. 142nd St. near Malcolm X Blvd., cops said.
Cops responding to a 911 call found the two groups exchanging fire about 11:20 p.m., police said.
“When they get there, there are individuals still shooting,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Fox 5′s “Good Day New York”. “One officer fires his service weapon and engages an armed perpetrator.”
As everyone scattered, cops followed a blood trail to a nearby apartment, where they found Jose Muniz, who was shooting out the window, police said.
Muniz, 31, tossed his gun onto scaffolding before NYPD Emergency Service Unit cops stormed the building and took him into custody, cops said.
He also had a gunshot wound in his hand, Shea said.
“It’s quite possible that we shot him,” Shea explained. “It’s also possible that he was shot in the additional exchange of gunfire between other people.”
Charges against Muniz were pending. He was arrested on April 6 for marijuana trafficking in Illinois and was previously busted on assault and resisting arrest charges in the city, sources said. He is also a registered sex offender following a 2014 rape arrest in Colonie, NY, near Albany.
No cops were injured and no other arrests have been made, police said.
Residents in the private apartment complex said there has been increasing violence nearby and inside their parking lot.
In August, Irvin Payne, of the Bronx was killed in a drive-by shooting outside the complex, police said.
Payne, 30, was standing around when a gunman in a white vehicle rolled up and shot him dead, cops said.
Source (Ny Daily news)