In a week already riddled with gun violence, a police officer was shot twice in the legs by a suspect in Queens Wednesday night.
NYPD Sergeant Craig Bier was in plainclothes and an unmarked car when he and his partner stopped a man on a bicycle, officials said.
The man fled and Bier chased him on foot, eventually exchanging gunfire with the suspect near 107th Avenue and Union Hall Street in Jamaica.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the suspect fired four times and Bier six. Bier was shot twice in the legs.
A first-year cop applied pressure to Bier’s wounds to control the bleeding, Mayor Bloomberg said. Bier was taken to Jamaica Hospital where he is expected to make a full recovery.
“Commissioner Kelly and I just visited with Sergeant Craig Bier, a highly decorated 15-year veteran of the department, who was shot tonight while keeping the rest of us safe,” Bloomberg said at Jamaica Hospital late Wednesday night.
“Thank God Sergeant Bier’s injuries are non-life threatening. He is alert and in remarkably good spirits.”
Police recovered the suspect’s Ruger 9-mm. pistol.
Cops identified the suspect as 24-year-old John Thomas, who lives just blocks from where the shooting occurred, according to signs posted by police.
Police released a man initially taken into custody after he walked into an area hospital with a graze wound on his head.
Bloomberg ties shooting to gun control
The same type of gun that was used to shoot and kill NYPD officer Peter Figoski was recovered after Bier’s shooting Wednesday night, according to the mayor’s office.
In both incidents, a Ruger 9-mm. was used. Lamont Pride was charged in the shooting death of Figoski in December.
Bloomberg used Bier’s shooting as a platform to tout his position on gun control. “Thirty-four people are being murdered in this country every single day with illegal firearms, and I think it’s fair to say we are still waiting for the leaders of our country and those who want to be the leaders of our country to stand up and tell us what they’re going to do about this,” he said.
