New York City police officers and crime scene markers are seen in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, NY, where two officers were shot during a routine traffic stop on Monday. The police officers were shot by three men who were driving a stolen sports utility vehicle.
"One will recover and one is clinging to life" Watch Video
By Joseph Mallia
Newsday
NEW YORK — Two New York Police Department officers were shot during a routine traffic stop in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn early Monday morning.
The two officers were on patrol in a marked car when, at 2:30 a.m., they pulled over a black SUV that they thought had been stolen and were fired upon from the car, the police said. One of the officers was able to return fire, police said.
Officer Russell Timoshenko, 23, was shot twice in the face and both .45 caliber bullets remained lodged in the back of his head, police said.
Bullets struck the other officer, Herman Yan, 26, in the left forearm and in the chest area of his bulletproof vest, police said.
"One will recover and one is clinging to life," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference. "I ask all New Yorkers to pray for their recovery."
A police source said investigators believe there were three people in the SUV, and two of them fired on the officers during the traffic stop at the corner of Lefferts Boulevard and Rogers Avenue.
Timoshenko was in "extremely critical condition," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference at Kings County Hospital, where both officers were taken.
Yan was in stable condition and expected to live. "We have every reason to believe that his life was saved by his bullet-proof vest," Kelly said.
Timoshenko, from Staten Island, has been on the force for 1 1/2 years. Yan, from Brooklyn, has been on the force for 3 years.
Bloomberg said the officers had been on "routine patrol in the 71st Precinct. They ran a license plate on a BMW sports utility truck. Turned out the license plate was registered to a Mitsubishi sports utility truck."
"As they approached the vehicle, Officer Yan from the driver's side and Officer Timoshenko from the passenger's side, gunfire erupted from the passenger's side," Bloomberg said. "Officer Timoshenko was shot. Officer Yan returned fire and went to help Officer Timoshenko when he (Yan) was shot as well."
Bloomberg said he had spoken to Yan and, "all things considered he was in good spirits." Yan, whose girlfriend and aunt were with him at the hospital, "should make a full recovery," he said.
"Tragically, the same can't be said about Officer Timoshenko. He was shot twice in the face and currently in surgery. He apparently has two bullets lodged in the back of his head and is in grave condition."
Bloomberg said he spoke to Timoshenko's parents. "I gave thanks from a concerned city, but as a parent I can't come close to understanding their feelings," he said.
The BMW was found abandoned a few blocks away from the shooting scene, and no weapons were found.
"The terrible events are proof once again of a fundamental truth we've learned again and again -- guns, when they fall into the hands of the wrong people, have tragic consequences," Bloomberg said.
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Posted by: kwflatbed
East Flatbush-WABC, July 10, 2007) - City police may be closing in on one of the suspects on the shootings of two NYC police officers in Brooklyn. The shooting happenened during a routine traffic stop early yesterday morning. Rookie officer Russel Timoshenko is clinging to life. His partner Herman Yan was saved by his bulletproof vest. Eyewitness News reporter Lisa Colagrossi is live at Kings County Hospital in East Flatbush with more.
The investigation is moving quickly. Just 24 hours after the shooting police have released a name of one of the suspects. His name is 34-year-old Dexter Bostick. He is an ex-con who works as a salesman at the Five Towns Mitsubishi in Inwood, Long Island. Police say there is video of him using an electronic key to open up the door of the BMW used in the shooting.
The shooting scene is covered now with $10,000 reward posters. Police say they have witnesses, fingerprints and video from several security cameras. Tapes show the actual shooting and the escape of three gunmen racing past the 71st Precinct. They dump the stolen vehicle nearby and flee the scene on foot as the car's lights are left on.
Police say it was all over as quickly as it began.
"There was no exchange of words, the officers were approaching the vehicle. They had not gotten to the driver's side window or the passenger side window when shots rang out," said NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Officer Herman Yan was shot twice. His bullet resistant vest stopped a slug aimed at his chest. But no such luck for his partner.
23-year-old Russel Timoshenko was hit in the face and neck by two bullets. Karl Cohen, a community activist thinks highly of both officers.
"They was committed. They were committed to their community and they were committed to their work," said Karl Cohen.
Mayor Bloomberg says officer Yan's attention since the shooting has been on his partner.
"I talked to him and his main concern is for his partner. He knew he was going to be okay but he was praying for his partner," said Mayor Bloomberg.
Detectives, armed with a mug shot of Bostick, burst into his last known address in the Far Rockaway section of Queens looking for him. They rounded up a large number of people who know him, one of whom could have been in the BMW during the shooting.
Bostick is on parole and has served two prison terms for assault, sodomy, robbery and attempted weapons possession.
Detectives believe the suspect uses his access to fancy cars to commit crimes with them, and then return them to the lot before they are reported missing.
Eyewitness News is told that one of the guns found near the BMW yesterday was linked to a drive-by shooting of a 25-year-old man in the leg last week in the Jamaica section of Queens.
The suspect is believed to have used a stolen silver Porsche that he took from the lot to rob that man of money, keys and a gold chain -- before shooting him.
More Information on the Shot Officers:
Officer Herman Yan
26-years-old
3 Years with NYPD
Lives in Brooklyn
Has carried out 36 arrests
Injuries: He was shot in the chest and forearm, his life was believed to be saved by his vest.
Officer Russell Timoshenko
23-years-old
Joined NYPD last January
Lives in Staten Island
Has carried out 15 arrests, three of them felonies
Injuries: He was shot in the face and neck, and remains in grave condition as doctors try and remove two bullets in the back of his head.
"It's a horrible thing, people don't realize what these cops have to go through," a neighbor of Officer Timoshenko said. "And they're worried about a pay scale. Everybody should take a good look at what these guys have to go through, and if it was their own kids, you know, it just hits home."
Eyewitness News is told that even though both of the officers worked at the 71st Precinct in Brooklyn, the outpouring of support for them has been enormous.
COP SHOT has placed a $10,000 cash bounty for suspects:
COP SHOT is placing $10,000 cash bounty on the heads of the assailants who allegedly shot two Brooklyn police officers this morning.
Anyone with information on the shootings should immediately call the organization's toll-free hotline at 1-800-COP-SHOT, which is manned around the clock by NYPD detectives. Callers do not have to give their names.
The COP SHOT bus, equipped with a public address system, will be at the scene of the shootings starting at 11 a.m. today, and throughout the day, with notification of the $10,000 cash bounty blaring over loud speakers.
Callers are provided with an identification number. A caller qualifies for the cash reward if their information leads to an arrest and conviction of the assailants.
COP SHOT, the acronym for "Citizens Outraged at Police Being Shot," is a group of metropolitan area business owners that posts an automatic standing $10,000 cash reward whenever a New York City police officer is shot or shot at.
"Money on the street talks, and there is usually someone willing to provide information in exchange for $10,000 in cash," COP SHOT Director of Operations John Provetto said. "Anyone with information on these shootings should call 1-800-COP-SHOT so we can bring in these suspects."
BROOKLYN, NY — Police took a suspect into custody for questioning Tuesday and were searching for two others in the brutal shooting of two young police officers during a traffic stop of a stolen SUV, a department official said.
Among the men being sought was a former employee of a Long Island car dealership where the black BMW sport utility vehicle was stolen, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not been completed. State records show the 34-year-old parolee has assault, robbery and weapons convictions.
One of the officers, Belarus-born Russel Timshenko, 23, remained in grave condition with a severe head wound. His family was at his bedside.
"I'm just praying for a miracle," said Victoria Gentile, a neighbor of the family on Staten Island.
The second officer, Herman Yan, was in stable condition with wounds to the chest and forearm. Police said it appeared that his bullet-resistant vest saved his life.
The NYPD launched a massive manhunt for the three occupants in the vehicle.
The incident occurred at 2:30 a.m. Monday in Brooklyn's Crown Heights section after the two officers used a laptop computer in their marked patrol car to do a random check of the license plates on the BMW. After discovering the plates didn't match the car, they turned on their flashing lights and pulled the car over.
As the uniformed officers followed procedure by approaching from either side of the SUV, investigators believe two of the occupants opened fire without warning, hitting Timoshenko first.
"Seeing his partner fall to the ground and hearing shots, Officer Yan returned fire, but he too was hit with gunfire," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference.
Detectives who were canvassing the area while investigating an unrelated double homicide heard the shots and stopped to help the officers. Other police cars arrived moments later and rushed the victims to the hospital.
Investigators later determined that the SUV, and the plates from the second vehicle, had been stolen from Five Towns Mitsubishi in Inwood, N.Y., on Long Island near the Queens border. Inside it were two .45-caliber shell casings and trash from a recent meal of fried chicken from a fast-food restaurant, police said.
A security camera from a daycare center at the intersection where the shooting took place captured grainy images of the officers approaching the stolen car. It also shows Timoshenko taking fire and falling backward, then Yan getting caught in a shootout, police said.
Investigators also obtained footage from a second camera showing three men ducking into a driveway next to a building after ditching the stolen vehicle a few blocks from the shooting. Three weapons — a .45-caliber handgun, a 9mm pistol and a Tec-9 automatic pistol — were discovered behind the building.
The NYPD did not make public any of the videotape.
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Posted by: Inspector
Local News
Posted: Wednesday, 11 July 2007 12:27AM
One Suspect Caught, The Hunt For Other Two Continues
NEW YORK (AP) -- With one suspect already in custody, police intensified their search Tuesday for two other men wanted for the brazen shooting of two officers during a traffic stop of a stolen SUV.
Among the men sought was a former employee of a Long Island car dealership where the BMW sport utility vehicle was stolen. He and the second missing man are parolees with long criminal records, police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly identified the man under arrest as Lee Woods, who was facing multiple charges of attempted murder, assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, unauthorized use of a vehicle and other offenses.
Officials said scores of investigators were still looking for Dexter Bostic, (Pictured top left) 34, of Queens, the former dealership employee, who is also known as Marcus Jackson and Dexter Bostick; and Robert J. Ellis, (pictured top right) 34, of Queens. The police department released mug shots of the men and announced a reward for information leading to their capture had reached $64,000.
Police said that Woods, 29, was arrested Monday at the Queens home of Bostic's sister, the mother of their child, and that he had numerous prior arrests for assault, weapons possession and other crimes. As Woods was being led from a police station in handcuffs Tuesday night, he denied any wrongdoing.
"I ain't do nothing," he said.
2nd Suspect Nabbed in Pa. DEVELOPING: A law enforcement official says one of the men wanted in the cold-blooded Brooklyn shooting of two police officers has been captured in the Poconos. Dexter Bostic, 34 was arrested Wednesday afternoon.
Posted by: kwflatbed
Three suspects nabbed in NYPD shooting
By Rocco Parascandola, Lauren Johnston, Joeseph Mallia and Michael Dobie
Newsday
The third suspect in the shooting of two young New York City police officers was apprehended in the Poconos Thursday morning, police there said.
Pennsylvania law enforcement officers reported Robert Ellis was in police custody and headed for questioning.
Members of the Pennsylvania State Police tactical team prepare to leave a command post set up in a rest stop along Interstate 80 near Scotrun, Pa., early Thursday morning. They were heading up the road to do a night time search of a wooded median where they are looking for a suspect in the shooting of two NYPD police officers. (AP Photo)
Search dogs picked up Ellis' scent and led Pennsylvania state police to a wooded area along Route 80 near the Interstate-380 interchange just west of Stroudsberg, where he was arrested along the westbound lanes, Captain James Murtin of the Pennsylvania state police said.
Murtin said Ellis attempted to flee police, but was captured after a brief pursuit and did not resist.
"Surely he had to know the [police] presence was heavy and the chances for him to escape that perimeter were slim," Murtin said.
Ellis was found unarmed and was uninjured, Murtin said, adding that about 50 officers split into two search teams had been hunting for Ellis through the night using night-vision gear and infared heat-sensing equipment after another suspect, Dexter Bostic, had been arrested nearby Wednesday.
Bostic is expected to be returned to New York City Thursday and be arraigned in court in Brooklyn Friday, according to an official with the Brooklyn District Attorney's office. Bostic is on parole and therefore automatically waives extradiction.
Shortly after Ellis' 8 a.m. arrest Thursday, NYPD and Pennsylvania police officers could be seen smiling and exchanging high fives.
Amid a cluster of nearly 30 marked and unmarked police cruisers, including many with New York license plates or NYPD markings, three people were seated in the back seat of a cruiser. The man in the middle of the back seat looked like the suspect, and the car was surrounded with more than 20 uniformed and plainclothes officers who were smiling and appeared to be in a good mood.
At the scene were indications of the extent of the search, including a helicopter circling overhead, a police tracking dog and several people in National Guard or other military uniforms,
Dexter Bostic is escorted from the state police barracks in Swiftwater, Pa., Thursday, wanted in the cold-blooded New York shooting of two police officers, was captured Wednesday in rural Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Jimmy May)
Leading up to the area of the arrest, an electronic sign on Route 80 warned, "Delays Ahead" and Pennsylvania state police cruisers were stationed every 100 yards or so along the highway. Traffic slowed to a crawl as passing vehicles watched the arrest.
Detectives knew a friend had driven Bostic and Ellis to the Poconos after they allegedly shot two Brooklyn cops.
Wednesday night, Bostic's three days as a fugitive ended when he was arrested trying to hide in a thicket of shrub oaks in rural Pennsylvania, 90 miles from the street corner where authorities say he and Ellis shot Officer Russel Timoshenko, paralyzing the well-liked rookie, and wounding his partner, Officer Herman Yan.
Posted by: kwflatbed
Part 2:
Hot on their trail since Tuesday, one day after the shooting, a phalanx of 40 New York City Police Department detectives and supervisors, plus officers from several Pennsylvania law enforcement agencies and United States marshals, closed in on the suspects after a passing driver saw them walking along Interstate 80, near the Interstate 380 exchange, in Tannersville. The officers had followed their trail through Long Island, Connecticut, Westchester and, finally, Pennsylvania.
There was a brief chase, but police tackled Bostic, who seemed winded and was apparently getting by on little more than tuna fish, peanut butter and crackers.
Robert J. Ellis, center, is taken into the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Swiftwater, Pa., on Thursday. Ellis is a suspect wanted in connection with the shooting of two New York Police officers in Brooklyn, NY. (AP Photo/The Pocono Record, David Kidwell)
News of Bostic's capture reverberated back in the city, where colleagues of the wounded officers spread the news.
But reaction was far more muted at Kings County Medical Center, where the more seriously injured cop, Timoshenko, 23, lay in a hospital bed, paralyzed and near death. A priest showed up to absolve him of his sins, and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly broke the news of the arrest to Timoshenko's parents.
"It was some comfort," Kelly said in a press conference, "but, of course, their son is gravely injured."
Timoshenko was allegedly gunned down by Bostic and Ellis early Monday morning when he and Yan, partners in the 71st Precinct, pulled the suspects over in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens because their license plate did not match their BMW.
Suspect Lee Woods is escorted into Brooklyn Criminal Court in New York, by New York City Police Officers, for arraignment on attempted murder, assault of a police officer, weapon possession and other counts Wednesday. Two NYPD officers were wounded, one critically, when occupants of the vehicle Woods was driving opened fire on them during a traffic stop in the early morning hours of Monday, July 10. (AP Photo/Pool, Aaron Showalter)
Timoshenko is paralyzed, has brain swelling and cannot breathe on his own, Assistant District Attorney Anna-Siegga Nicolazzi said at a court appearance Wednesday for a third suspect. The courtroom was packed with police officers.
Yan was shot in the arm and the chest, but a bulletproof vest saved his life and he fired 14 shots at the suspects, who fled, with a third suspect, Lee Woods, 29, at the wheel, police said.
Later that morning, Woods went off on his own, but Bostic and Ellis hatched a plan to get out of the state without driving through the city, Kelly said.
A friend, Kelly said, drove the duo to Port Jefferson, where the three of them took the ferry to Bridgeport. From there, Kelly said, they made their way back into New York State, buying food and water at a supermarket in Tarrytown.
By this point, police in the city had raided a number of different locations — homes of the suspects' relatives and friends, mostly — and considered the possibility the suspects were heading to North Carolina, where Bostic has family.
Instead, he, Ellis and the friend were heading into Pennsylvania, via Interstate 80, police said. The friend dropped them in a wooded area about 14 miles away from where Bostic was captured.
Police dogs were used, with animals following their scent for three-quarters of a mile along a creek bed that ended at Route 611, where the trail went cold. A few hours later, just before 6 p.m., Pennsylvania State Police got he call from the motorist. Kelly said police learned of the suspects' whereabouts Tuesday. The friend was not charged, and Kelly would not say if the man drove Bostic and Ellis willingly, or if he had been forced to.
On Tuesday afternoon, police, acting on a tip, located the driver, who revealed the suspects' whereabouts. Dozens of NYPD investigators were dispatched to the area, where they joined local police in a search.
A passing motorist alerted authorities after spotting Ellis and Bostic walking along a rural section of Interstate 80 on Wednesday, police said. Investigators followed a trail of muddy footprints and food wrappers and eventually caught up with the two suspects.
By 8 p.m. Tuesday, the first team of NYPD officers had arrived in Pennsylvania. Three homes near where the suspects were seen were searched. But it appears they spent most of their time wandering, authorities said.
Bostic was being held Wednesday night in Pennsylvania.
Woods was arrested Tuesday at the home of his girlfriend, who is Bostic's sister. Woods was arraigned Wednesday on attempted murder charges.
Police sources said Bostic stole the BMW from an Inwood, Long Island, dealership where he and Ellis have worked. The three ex-convicts headed to Brooklyn and were pulled over at Rogers and Lefferts avenues, where a video surveillance camera captured the shooting.
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