Thomas Tracy, Rocco Parascandola, Esha Ray and Larry McShane
New York Daily News
HARLEM, NY — A crazed, naked gunman was gunned down in a wild Wednesday shootout with police inside the hallway of his Harlem apartment building, with a lucky city cop saved by his bullet-resistant vest during the lethal late-night confrontation, authorities said.
The officer was shot in the chest as bullets flew on the second floor of a building on Frederick Douglas Blvd. near 148th St., though it was not immediately clear if he was shot by the dead man or accidentally by one of his fellow officers.
A building resident reported hearing more than 10 shots fired shortly before 2 a.m., with suspect Victor Hernandez fatally wounded in the building where he worked as the superintendent.
Cops responding to reports of a deranged man breaking glass and banging on doors in the building found the naked suspect on the second floor pointing a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun at one of them, according to police.
“A violent struggle immediately began and shots were fired,” said NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill. “The officer yelled for help as the struggle continued and the other officers discharged their firearms, striking the suspect several times.”
Hernandez, 29, died at Harlem Hospital after he was shot several times by police. Sources said his mother is an NYPD cop assigned to the 52nd Precinct in the northern Bronx.
A local business owner told the Daily News that the bizarre behavior was entirely out of character for the slain man, with a building resident describing Hernandez as “a family man” with a son and a daughter.
The cop — who was also slugged in the face during the mayhem — was treated and quickly released from Mount Sinai St. Luke’s. His wife, also a police officer who joined the NYPD in the same 2012 academy class, rushed to his side at the hospital.
''He’s in good spirits,” said Mayor de Blasio after visiting the officer. “(He is) absolutely an example of bravery and strength. After what he had been through he was still in good spirits. He’s shaken, obviously, but he will be OK.”
The strange encounter began with two 911 calls about the man running amok inside the building at 1:51 a.m., cops said. Eight uniformed officers from the 32nd Precinct responded and went looking for the suspect on the second floor, where one of the cops suddenly encountered the naked suspect — who leveled his weapon at the officer, police said.
O’Neill held up the wounded officer’s vest during the press conference, pointing to the hole left by the bullet on its right chest pocket.
“Thank God he was wearing it,” said O’Neill, adding the confrontation was captured on the officers’ body cameras.
“They went down to the floor,” he said of the struggle in the hallway. “If you watch it, it’s very disturbing.”
It was not immediately clear if either the wounded officer or the gunman fired any shots. O’Neill said the suspect’s gun was recovered and will be tested.
While O’Neill said police knew the gunman from previous domestic violence calls, a local deli owner described the building super as a normal guy who stopped to say hello barely two hours before he was killed.
“I saw him and I said hi, around (midnight) when I was closing down the store,” said Jerome Selassie, owner of the 148 Deli Grocery across the street from the shooting scene. “I don’t believe it. I don’t think he’s the kind of guy who walks around with a gun. He’s a happy guy. I don’t understand it. He’s not that kind of guy.”
When Selassie returned to open the business at 6 a.m. Wednesday, he found “a crazy scene” with police officers everywhere. The same was true near the Yonkers home of the slain man’s parents, where a neighbor described them as “good people, nice family, no trouble.”
Pedro Ramos, 44, was upstairs on the 10th floor of the building when the shooting started eight stories below. He recalled Hernandez as a friendly fellow, a sports fan and an ex-baseball player.
“Good guy, family guy,” said Ramos. “It amazes me that he did that. I’m shocked. Shocked.”
The incident marked the fourth time in the last eight games cops have fired at suspects in the past eight days.
The most recent came last Thursday, when a Bronx cop in Norwood shot and killed a motorist during a traffic stop. Police said the suspect tried to drive away as officers were holding onto him.
Eight days ago, Brooklyn cops in Boerum Hill shot and killed a recent parolee as he was firing at another man, police said. And about four hours later, police in the Bronx shot and wounded an armed man they said pointed their gun at officers after firing at a fellow straphanger at the 225th St. subway station in Wakefield.
Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch, who was at the hospital with the mayor and police commissioner, said any confrontation with a gunman, no matter how brief, “seems like hours.”
“But he stayed in there,” Lynch said of the wounded officer. “He did what he had to do and his fellow police officers, equally as heroic, came rushing in.”