A Brooklyn cop was lucky to be alive Christmas Day after surviving a shooting in Crown Heights Christmas Eve.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the bullet getting lodged in the 27-year-old officer's vest midway up his back was a "Christmas miracle," Brooklyn Paper reported.
The officer was from the 77th Precinct and was treated in Kings County Hospital.
Shea said the officer and others were responding to desperate 911 calls from the mother of the suspect's girlfriend, who said the suspect was threatening to come and "shoot the place up." The shooting occurred on Bergen Street near Ralph Avenue, across the street from the Albany Houses.
The suspect arrived at the scene not long after the police and opened fire when the girlfriend identified him to police, Shea said. Police returned fire on the 20-year-old suspect, but did not strike him or anyone else. He was later caught on foot.
De Blasio and Shea met with the parents of the officer and de Blasio said the look of relief on their faces that their son would survive was unforgettable.
"They felt this was a Christmas miracle, that their son is alive and well. Thank God for that."
Shea said the officers were incredibly brave in shielding the girlfriend and her family from the suspect, and apprehending him on foot. He compared the incident to one in Queens prior to Thanksgiving where two police officers were shot responding to a domestic violence call. Although both officers survived, the suspect was shot dead during a shootout.
De Blasio said New York City had seen horrible incidents of domestic violence during the pandemic and appealed for those in danger to seek help.
"Here is a time when we would expect people to treat each other with kindness, but instead, a woman's life was in danger," the mayor said. "We know during the holidays, tragically, a lot of the worst instincts come out in some people."
